


Blood and Water

by baeconandeggs, chajatta



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: BAE2017, Friends to Lovers, HP AU, M/M, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 07:43:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10849533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeconandeggs/pseuds/baeconandeggs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/chajatta/pseuds/chajatta
Summary: Ever since he was a little boy Chanyeol has known that there is much more to life than his parents, with their pure-blood privilege and conservative ideals, would have him believe. But when he meets Baekhyun, a Muggle-born whose magic goes far beyond mere wizardry and spell casting, Chanyeol gets so much more than he ever bargained for.





	Blood and Water

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt#: 002  
> Title: Blood and Water  
> Word Count: 31,574  
> Side Pairing(s): none  
> Rating: NC-17  
> Warning: underage drinking, overbearing parents, mentions of pure-blood supremacy, teenage boys being stupid teenage boys  
> Disclaimer: The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
> Author's Note: Phew. I never intended for this fic to be as long as it is, but the more I worked on it the more I wished I could dedicate the time to this that it deserved to do the prompt justice. Even still, this was a pleasure to write and, hands down, the most self-indulgent thing I’ve ever written. As soon as I saw the prompt I knew I had to have it, so I hope this is even somewhat similar to what you wanted, original prompter.  
> A note on some things before you start reading. I tweaked the boys’ ages so that they would all be in the same year. Also, both Baekhyun and Chanyeol are of age by both Muggle and Wizarding law by the time they start getting up to any funny business. I deliberately kept the years vague but the timeline is somewhere after the canon events of Harry Potter.  
> 

The Hogwarts Express is just as magnificent as Chanyeol had always imagined it would be.  
  
He’d always thought the day his letter arrived would be the best day of his life, but this- standing on Platform 9 and 3/4 in his smartest dress robes, with his parents either side of him- this is a thousand, a million times better. Chanyeol’s owl screeches loudly in her cage and Chanyeol startles back to life, his hands releasing their death grip on the handles of his trolley.  
  
“Can I go now, Mother? Father? Can I?” Chanyeol asks, his eyes wide with excitement as he turns back to face his parents. His father chuckles and his mother shakes her head, reaching out to straighten his hair.  
  
“Not just yet, little one,” she says. “You need to give your mother a kiss before you go.”  
  
Chanyeol’s cheeks flush but he steps forward obediently. His mother is tall, tall enough that even though she dips her head Chanyeol has to stretch right up onto his tiptoes to reach her cheek. It’s cool and smooth beneath his mouth. Chanyeol moves to kiss his father, too, and he smiles brightly when he drops a large hand to Chanyeol’s shoulder and squeezes gently.  
  
“ _Now?_ ” Chanyeol asks. He hops from foot to foot, unable to contain himself for very much longer. His owl hoots again.  
  
“Okay, Chanyeol. Now,” his mother says and Chanyeol has to fight the urge to jump with excitement. It wouldn’t be becoming to be so loud, not when there were so many other people around. Chanyeol would have to be careful to remember his manners once he arrived at Hogwarts if he wanted to make a good impression.  
  
Chanyeol moves to lift his trunk from his trolley, the charm his father had placed on it before they left home making it light enough for him to lift down alone. He reaches for his owl, tucks the cage under one arm, and begins to head towards the train.  
  
The weather is still warm, the last balmy remnants of summer clinging to the air, and the sunlight that streams through the dirty glass roof of King’s Cross makes the train gleam. Chanyeol’s heart feels like it’s in his throat, trying to climb up into his mouth. He lifts his trunk up and then turns around. Chanyeol’s parents are stood together with his abandoned trolley, smiling proudly.  
  
“I’ll write to you, I promise!” Chanyeol calls, raising one hand to wave. His owl spreads her great dappled wings, slipping them out through the bars of her cage and beating Chanyeol briefly on the thigh before she settles once more. Chanyeol beams and drops his arm back down to his side.  
  
“Go on,” his father says. “Do your homework, listen to your teachers and remember to be good.” The three of them chorus those last two words at the same time. Chanyeol nods, looks at his parents one last time, and then turns to climb onto the train. There is still a decent crowd of people on the platform saying goodbye to their loved ones, but plenty of the compartments have already started to fill up. Chanyeol makes his way down the narrow little aisle, owl in one hand and trunk in the other, until he finds an empty one. He stows his trunk up out of the way, settles his owl down on the seat next to him, and then goes to press his nose against the window.  
  
Chanyeol can no longer see his parents but he drinks in the sights of the other families greedily. He wonders which of these children are first years like him, who of them will be in his house. Chanyeol’s tummy lurches just thinking about it, about not being- he shakes his head, his hair flopping down across his eyes. Chanyeol reaches up to brush it away and his gaze is drawn to a family at the edge of the platform.  
  
There’s a Mother and a Father and an older boy, but it’s the youngest boy that really catches his attention. He’s short, _very_ short, so Chanyeol thinks he must be a first year too, but it’s the way he’s clinging to his mother’s waist that has Chanyeol craning his neck to get a better view. His mother has one hand on the back of his head, stroking his hair, and Chanyeol watches curiously as the boy finally, _finally_ , pulls away. He lifts his head, nodding as his mother bends down to whisper something in his ear, and Chanyeol can see even from where he’s sitting the wobbly smile that spreads across his mouth.  
  
Chanyeol watches as the boy’s father and what Chanyeol assumes is his brother take a handle of his trunk each, struggling with it towards the train. Chanyeol wonders, briefly, why they hadn’t just charmed it, but then they disappear from view and Chanyeol goes back to the boy. He isn’t holding on to his mother anymore, but he isn’t walking towards the train, either. It’s then that Chanyeol notices he’s wearing Muggle clothes, jeans and a jumper that’s so large it falls down over his wrists. Chanyeol swears he feels his heart skip a beat.  
  
Another family walks across Chanyeol’s field of vision and by the time they’re gone the boy and his mother have vanished, too, disappeared from Chanyeol’s sight no matter how hard he presses himself against the window. Chanyeol sighs in disappointment and turns away from the window, finally going to settle himself down in his seat. He can hear other students outside, sees them bustling up and down the aisle, meeting friends old and new. Chanyeol looks down at his robes, readjusts them carefully. His parents would want him to look his best.  
  
There’s a knock on the door and Chanyeol startles, lifting his head.  
  
It’s the small boy, from the platform.  
  
“Can I sit with you?” He asks and Chanyeol leaps to his feet.  
  
“Of course!” Chanyeol says, rushing over to help the boy with his trunk. It’s _heavy_ but between them they manage to get it onto the luggage rack. The boy is panting when they part, his cheeks pink.  
  
“Thank you,” he says, looking at Chanyeol’s owl with wide eyes before carefully taking a seat. Chanyeol sits down, too, bouncing onto his seat hard enough that he hears the springs creak beneath him.  
  
“I’m Chanyeol,” Chanyeol says, smiling widely as he introduces himself. “What’s your name?”  
  
“Baekhyun,” the boy, Baekhyun, replies. He still sounds a little breathless.  
  
“Nice to meet you, Baekhyun!” Chanyeol chirps with his best manners. He thinks his parents would be proud. Baekhyun has turned his head away to look out of the window, eyes darting around like he’s searching for something. It’s then that Chanyeol notices how red they are, how wet. “Have you been crying?”  
  
Baekhyun’s head whips back around. He stares at Chanyeol for a moment before shaking it furiously.  
  
“ _No_ ,’” Baekhyun hisses, lifting his hand up to wipe his eyes on his sleeve. “I don’t cry, not ever. I’m brave.” His voice wobbles a little as he says it. Chanyeol smiles.  
  
“So you’re going to be a Gryffindor, then?” Chanyeol’s tummy lurches again as he says it. Not that being a Gryffindor was a _bad_ thing, not really, it just meant that Baekhyun and Chanyeol were almost guaranteed not to be in the same house. The thought makes him sad, somehow. Chanyeol definitely wasn’t a Gryffindor.  
  
“A what?” Baekhyun asks. There’s a blob of snot shining on his lip and Baekhyun wipes it away absently.  
  
“A Gryffindor,” Chanyeol repeats. Baekhyun is looking at him blankly. Chanyeol’s smile wavers, just a little. “No? Ravenclaw, then?” Baekhyun is still staring at him like he’s grown a second head and Chanyeol feels his ears starting to burn.  
  
“I don’t know,” Baekhyun says eventually, his voice stretched and thin. “I don’t know what any of those things are. I don’t even know how to be a- a- a wizard.” The way he says it, wizard, like it’s a foreign word he doesn’t even know how to pronounce, makes Chanyeol squint suspiciously.  
  
“What do you mean, you don’t know how to be a wizard? None of us know how to be wizards, yet. That’s why we’re going to Hogwarts!” Baekhyun doesn’t respond, turning his head away to look out of the window again. Chanyeol studies him, from the ratty trainers on his feet to the way his hands are curled into fists in his lap. The realisation hits Chanyeol so suddenly that he almost jumps right out of his seat. His owl hoots grumpily, turning her huge, orange eyes on him in reproach.  
  
“Are you a Muggle-born?” Chanyeol asks and he can’t control his excitement this time, he _can’t_ as much as he knows he should. Chanyeol has never met a Muggle-born his own age before and now here one was, sat right in front of him.  
  
Baekhyun turns back to him again. He’s frowning at Chanyeol, brows knitted. “I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what any of the words you keep saying mean.”  
  
“Your parents, are they magic, like us?” Chanyeol asks. Baekhyun shakes his head and Chanyeol feels almost frenzied, he’s so excited. “So you _are_ a Muggle-born! Bloody hell.” Chanyeol claps a hand over his mouth. Baekhyun is staring at him like a wild rabbit, his eyes wide, and then suddenly they both start to laugh, loud and delighted.  
  
“Is that bad?” Baekhyun asks once they’ve both calmed down. “Being a- a Muggle-born?”  
  
“No, not at all!” Chanyeol says and it isn’t, it so isn’t, despite what some people still say. “It’s so cool. Honestly, it’s the coolest. I wish I was a Muggle-born.” Chanyeol says that last a little shyly. His parents have always told him he shouldn’t say things like that, should be proud to be one of the few remaining pure-bloods, but Chanyeol can’t help the way he feels sometimes. Baekhyun is still staring at him but there’s the smallest hint of a smile there, now.  
  
The train suddenly lurches beneath them. Baekhyun grips the seat, his knuckles white. “We’re moving,” he says and Chanyeol nods. When he looks out of the window the platform is creeping away, a plume of white smoke obscuring the families still waiting there. Chanyeol knows his parents will be gone by now but Baekhyun is craning his neck to look out, searching desperately through the bodies for one last glimpse. But the train is moving too fast, pulling away from the station until suddenly the platform and the families and King’s Cross are all gone. A single tear rolls down Baekhyun’s round cheek but he wipes it away quickly.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Baekhyun seems to calm the further away from Kings’ Cross they get. Chanyeol still sees him wiping his nose on the too-long sleeve of his jumper occasionally as he listens to Chanyeol babble, but by the time the scenery outside has turned mostly into the rolling green farmland of the midlands his eyes look almost completely normal again.  
  
When the witch arrives at their compartment with her trolley, Baekhyun is steady enough to get to his feet and approach her curiously. He glances up at Chanyeol briefly, but his attention quickly returns to the trolley.  
  
“What _is_ all this stuff?” He breathes in wonder as Chanyeol stands to join him.  
  
“Wizard sweets, of course,” Chanyeol says and he sees the trolley witch smile kindly at the pair of them as Baekhyun goes up on his tiptoes to examine a stack of small chocolate muffins.  
  
“Cauldron cakes, dear,” the trolley witch says as she hands Chanyeol a stack of pumpkin pasties and a stripy, paper bag filled with Fudge Flies.  
  
“Oh, um- I’ll just have the same- the pasties, please. Two,” Baekhyun mutters.  
  
“Thirteen sickles and twenty-two knuts, my love,” she says and Chanyeol watches, his mouth already stuffed full of Fudge Flies, as Baekhyun flounders.  
  
“Don’t you have any money?” Chanyeol asks, once he’s prised his teeth apart. He’s a little taken aback by the way Baekhyun answers him.  
  
“Of course I have money,” Baekhyun snaps. He pulls a little drawstring bag from his seat and holds it awkwardly in both hands. Chanyeol can see the way his cheeks are starting to turn pink. “I just- I don’t know- I’ve never used wizard money before, I don’t know-“  
  
Chanyeol discards his own food and bounds across the carriage to Baekhyun’s side in two delighted steps.  
  
“You must be used to Muggle money, then?” Chanyeol asks and he doesn’t wait for Baekhyun’s response before he’s reaching to pry the bag from between Baekhyun’s hands. “Don’t worry, I can teach you how to use wizard money. It’s really easy.” Chanyeol opens up Baekhyun’s bag, the coins inside jingling. He looks over at Baekhyun suddenly. “Maybe you could show me how to use Muggle money?”  
  
Baekhyun has that dumbfounded, overwhelmed look on his face again but then he’s smiling, nodding. “Yeah, okay, I could do that.”  
  
Chanyeol’s smile in return is blinding, filled with rows of straight, white teeth.  
  
He proceeds to teach Baekhyun about all of the coins in his bag; the difference between a galleon and a sickle, how many knuts add up to a sickle. Baekhyun looks a little lost, but he counts all his coins and hands them proudly to the trolley witch, who’d been watching them all the while with a patient smile on her old, wrinkled face. She eventually hands Baekhyun his pasties and he thanks her, cradling them in one hand as he stuffs his money away.  
  
“Good choice, by the way,” Chanyeol says, tearing a corner off one of his own pasties and holding it out to his owl. She watches him with appraising eyes as Chanyeol carefully slips his fingers between the bars of her cage. “My parents always say that pumpkin pasties are too common but I love them.” Chanyeol smiles up at Baekhyun before feeding his owl another strip of pastry.  
  
“I’ve never eaten pumpkin before,” Baekhyun admits. He stares down at the pastries in his hands apprehensively for a moment before lifting one to his mouth and taking a bite. Chanyeol watches him chew, flakes of pastry clinging to his lips, before he speaks again. “They’re delicious!”  
  
Chanyeol laughs, curling his fingers against his owl’s beak and stroking it affectionately when she swallows down her food. He can see Baekhyun watching them from across the carriage as he eats.  
  
“I didn’t introduce you, did I?” Chanyeol asks and he’s suddenly struck by how disappointed his parents would be in him for forgetting his manners. “This is Strix. She’s an Eagle Owl but she’s only a baby, that’s why she’s still so small.” Strix hoots indignantly and clacks her beak. She wasn’t small, not really, but she’d looked it compared to the pair of adult Eagle Owls his parents owned when they’d presented Chanyeol with her, a week after he’d gotten his Hogwarts letter. “Is it-“ Chanyeol starts before pausing almost immediately. “Is it okay if I let her out? It’s just- it’s a really, really long way and I don’t want her to be uncomfortable, but if you’d prefer I didn’t, that’s okay.”  
  
Baekhyun has already started on his second pasty and he looks up with a small smile.  
  
“You can let her out,” he says, once he’s swallowed. “Please, I’d like it a lot. I’ve never seen an owl up close before.”  
  
Baekhyun sounds so shy and nervous every time he admits to something like that. Chanyeol has always been curious about Muggles, ever since he was a little boy and he’d learnt that not everyone was magical, but even in the short hour that he’s known Baekhyun he can’t help but be even _more_ curious about how different Muggle life is. How different was Baekhyun’s life to Chanyeol’s up until this point? To have never even seen an _owl_. Chanyeol knew Muggles didn’t use owl post, of course he did, but knowing it is completely different to having someone sitting just across from him who has actually lived in that world, who has actually grown up without owls and brooms and magic and all of the other things that Chanyeol has taken for granted his entire life.  
  
He stares across at Baekhyun for a moment in silence before he unlocks the catch on Strix’s cage with clumsy fingers and pulls the door aside. The owl moves immediately, dipping her head to fit through the gap and then hopping out onto the seat next to Chanyeol. Her talons sink into the worn material and Chanyeol giggles as she hops from foot to foot, attempting to find her balance.  
  
“She’s beautiful,” Baekhyun breathes. That little admission catches her attention and Strix’s head turns, swivelling to look at Baekhyun. A low beam of autumn sunlight flashes through the carriage and falls briefly across the bird’s face, lighting her eyes a deep, molten orange. She stands like that for a minute, contorted, before shifting her entire body around and spreading her wings, gliding easily over the tiny gap to Baekhyun’s seat. Baekhyun gasps and reaches an uncertain hand out to touch her.  
  
“It’s okay,” Chanyeol encourages when Baekhyun stops just short. “She doesn’t bite, I promise. You can stroke her.” Baekhyun’s eyes flicker up to Chanyeol for a second before he closes the distance and lays his fingers against the bird’s neck. “See?” Chanyeol says, grinning, when Baekhyun grows a little more confident and begins to stroke Strix properly, dragging his palm gently down her back and scratching his fingers into her feathers.  
  
“She’s so soft,” Baekhyun says and he sounds so awed, so amazed, that Chanyeol can’t help the way his heart flutters inside his chest.  
  
“I think she likes you,” Chanyeol says. Strix croons in agreement, hunkering down by Baekhyun’s side and closing her eyes. Baekhyun continues to scratch her, moving his touch down to right under her wing joint, and he looks so pleased with himself when he glances up and Chanyeol. The sunlight outside shifts, spilling over Baekhyun’s face. He wrinkles his nose, eyes scrunching, as particles of dust dance just above his head. Chanyeol is almost certain he’s never seen anything so cute in his entire life.  
  
The rest of the train journey passes surprisingly quickly, after that.  
  
Chanyeol is a natural chatterbox who’s never found it difficult to make friends, but Baekhyun feels so comfortable and so _right_ to be around that even Chanyeol is a little surprised by how quickly they take to one another. At least, he would be if the pair of them could stop talking long enough for his brain to consider it.  
  
Baekhyun asks him a whole host of questions, about magic and school and everything in between, and his nerves seem to get overtaken by excitement the more Chanyeol tells him. Chanyeol, too, has his own questions, questions he had never been able to ask anyone else. Growing up, Chanyeol’s parents had always quietly discouraged his interest in the Muggle world. It isn’t polite, they’d say, pulling Chanyeol aside before they attended a dinner party with friends, or hosted important figures from his mother’s department at the Ministry. People can get the wrong idea if you ask too many questions about Muggles, they’d always tell him. Chanyeol would nod, his smile fading just a little, but he’d try to keep his mouth shut all the same.  
  
But now, without his parents around, Chanyeol can’t help himself. He asks Baekhyun all the questions he can think of, all of the thoughts that have been in his head for years. Do you really use people instead of owls for your post? Is it true that Muggles fly in big metal boxes instead of brooms? What exactly _is_ electricity? Baekhyun tells him everything, happily. Chanyeol sits, totally enraptured, staring at Baekhyun with Strix still sat contently by his side, the carriage golden in the setting sun, as Baekhyun answers every question that his parents had always told him it was far too rude to ask.  
  
It isn’t until it starts to get dark outside, truly dark, the kind of pitch black that only occurs in the countryside, far away from the lights of the city, that Chanyeol suggests they change into their robes.  
  
“Of course, they won’t be plain black for long,” Chanyeol says as he shrugs his cloak over his shoulder and turns to look at Baekhyun. “They’ll be charmed to the colour of our new house, once we get sorted.”  
  
Baekhyun looks up and his smile is a little wobbly again. Chanyeol’s stomach lurches. He wants so badly to be in the same house as Baekhyun, wants to share a dormitory and stay up all night whispering through the curtains, to sit next to each other in lessons and help each other with their homework. But what were the chances, really? Chanyeol has always been an optimistic person, but even he knows that there’s a good chance they’re going to be separated.  
  
“My parents were both in Slytherin,” Chanyeol starts, forcing a wide smile. Baekhyun’s robes are too big for him, falling down over his fingers and brushing the floor of the carriage. “So I’ll probably be in Slytherin, too. Not that _everyone_ gets put in the same house as their families, but it’s common.”  
  
“Then hopefully I’ll be in Slytherin, as well,” Baekhyun says. Chanyeol sits back down in his seat across from Baekhyun and tries to ignore the way his tummy suddenly starts to do cartwheels.  
  
“Fingers crossed.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
There’s the slightest hint of warmth still lingering in the air when they get off the train, but Baekhyun still huddles in close to Chanyeol’s side when they clamber into the boats that will take them across the lake to the school.  
  
Chanyeol has heard a lot about Hogwarts, has seen pictures in the old copy of _Hogwarts, a History_ that his parents keep in their library at home, but nothing could have ever prepared him for this.  
  
The school is _enormous_ , looming over their tiny little fleet of boats like a dragon even in the dark, the lights in the windows twinkling almost jewel like. Chanyeol hears Baekhyun gasp beside him and he glances away from the school briefly. The moonlight bouncing off the surface of the lake has his face washed white and his mouth is hanging open, his eyes wide as he stares up at the school like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. He looks a little stupid, in truth, but Chanyeol smiles and reaches down without thinking to grab Baekhyun’s hand. If Chanyeol feels overwhelmed he can’t even imagine what Baekhyun must be thinking right now. His hand twitches in Chanyeol’s for a second, two, and Chanyeol thinks he might pull away, but he doesn’t, his fingers curling around the back of Chanyeol’s hand without looking away from the school once.  
  
They let go of each other once they climb out of the boats but they stick close, shoulders brushing all the way up through the gates and into the castle. Their group stops outside a set of grand, golden doors that Chanyeol knows without being told lead into the Great Hall. A constant, low hum of chatter spills under the doors and Chanyeol suddenly feels ill at the thought of walking into the Hall, of hundreds of eyes watching him, staring at him as he gets sorted. Chanyeol wants to hold Baekhyun’s hand again, to feel his warm palm against his, but he doesn’t dare reach out for it, not here.  
  
Chanyeol’s thoughts are disrupted when another door off to the right, plain dark wood that looks so shabby next to the golden doors Chanyeol hadn’t even noticed it, opens and a young, kind-looking witch in royal-blue robes steps in front of them.  
  
“Good evening, first years,” she starts. Some of the other students had been chattering amongst themselves but everyone is silent now, all staring up at the woman in front of them. “I’m Professor Astrum, the head of Ravenclaw house, and I’m very happy to welcome you all to Hogwarts.” Someone sniffs behind them but all Chanyeol can hear is that drone of voices. “I’ll be taking you in to the Great Hall to join the start-of-term feast shortly, but before you sit down we’ll be having our Sorting Ceremony. You will each be sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses, with whom you will go to sit for the feast. The Sorting Ceremony will be over in the blink of an eye so please don’t look so worried.” Professor Astrum smiles down at them but Chanyeol can’t help himself, he _is_ worried. That doesn’t matter, though, because Professor Astrum is clapping her hands together and ushering them all forward.  
  
“If you’d all like to follow me.” Their group shuffles forward nervously and the golden doors swing open. Chanyeol’s legs feel like lead and when he looks over at Baekhyun the other boy’s face is ghostly pale. Chanyeol knocks their shoulders together and follows the rest of the students into the Great Hall.  
  
Chanyeol is so busy trying not to fall over his own feet in front of the entire school that he doesn’t even get a chance to look around. Some of the students around him are pointing and gasping and Chanyeol is vaguely aware of hundreds of faces looking at them, at him, from the four long tables in the middle of the hall, but all he cares about is making it to the front of the hall without throwing up.  
  
They’re organised into a messy line and then Professor Astrum steps up onto a little dais. There’s a stool there, and a ratty scrap that Chanyeol knows must be the Sorting Hat. It bursts into song and several of the older students whoop in delight but Chanyeol barely hears a word, vaguely registers something about love and friendship and togetherness before the Hat is silent again. Professor Astrum has a long roll of parchment in one hand and she smiles down at them all once more before beginning to call names.  
  
It seems to take no time at all before a “Byun, Baekhyun!” is called up to be sorted.  
  
“Good luck,” Chanyeol whispers under his breath but the words taste like ash in his mouth as he watches Baekhyun hurry up through the crowd to take a seat. The Hat falls down over his eyes, obscuring half of his face. Baekhyun sits like that for a solid minute and Chanyeol crosses his fingers so hard by his sides that he almost loses circulation. _Please_ , Chanyeol thinks in his head, _please, please put us in the same House. Slytherin, put him in Slytherin, put us both in-_  
  
“GRYFFINDOR!”  
  
A huge cheer erupts from the table on the far left, loud and raucous and delighted. Chanyeol feels like crying. The Hat is lifted from Baekhyun’s head, his hair sticking up in every direction, and Chanyeol sees the way Baekhyun immediately looks for him. He smiles weakly when their eyes meet and Chanyeol tries to return it, he really does, but as he watches Baekhyun climb down from the stool and make his shaky way down to join his new House all Chanyeol wants to do is cry.  
  
He watches blankly as the rest of their classmates are sorted. A tall boy with a long, pale face gets sorted into Slytherin and Chanyeol watches him go, watches as he heads to the table on the right hand side of the Hall, the side furthest away from the Gryffindors.  
  
“Park, Chanyeol!” The sound of his name startles Chanyeol out of his thoughts and he stumbles as he approaches the stool.  
  
If the thought of everyone looking at him had been terrifying earlier, seeing all those pairs of eyes trained on him as he takes his place at the front of the Hall is enough to have Chanyeol’s entire body shaking. He doesn’t even look for Baekhyun, just squeezes his eyes shut as the Sorting Hat is placed on his head.  
  
“This should be an easy one,” a voice says in his head. Chanyeol tries his best to ignore it and the voice laughs. “Oh, but you’re not happy with me, are you? You wanted to be with your friend, didn’t you? Well don’t you worry, I understand that.”  
  
Chanyeol squeezes his eyes so hard he can see bursts of colour starting to erupt behind his lids.  
  
“But friendship can overcome and endure, in time. Indeed, it will be all the stronger for it, in the end. For now, though, you’re a clever boy with a good heart, so I suppose it had better be- SLYTHERIN!”  
  
It’s exactly what Chanyeol had expected. Slytherin is the House Chanyeol had always thought, had always _assumed_ , he’d be put in when he finally came to Hogwarts, but this is the first time in his entire life that he’s been upset about it. He feels the Sorting Hat being lifted from his head and Chanyeol stands mechanically. He doesn’t look up at the Great Hall, doesn’t search for Baekhyun on the Gryffindor table. Chanyeol just stares down at his feet as he makes his way to the table on the right of the hall. Everyone is cheering for him and a few people reach out to pat him on the back as he passes them but it all falls on deaf ears as Chanyeol slides into an empty space beside the tall boy who’d been sorted before him.  
  
Chanyeol knows it’s ridiculous. Even as he watches the few remaining students get sorted so the feast can begin in earnest, Chanyeol _knows_ he’s being ridiculous, but that doesn’t stop the ache in his belly. Chanyeol likes Baekhyun, a lot, and he’d thought they could be friends, maybe even best friends. But now he was in Gryffindor and Chanyeol was in Slytherin and that would be that. Relationships between the two Houses are nowhere near as bad as they had been years ago, when his parents were at school and during the war, but Chanyeol knows that won’t stop Baekhyun’s fellow Gryffindors filling his head with all kinds of horrible lies. Slytherins can’t be trusted, it’s a House full of dark wizards, they’ll stab you in the back as soon as look at you. Chanyeol knows the stories.  
  
He tries to mingle with his new House, he really does. Chanyeol finds out that the boy sat next to him is called Sehun and that he’s a half-blood. Sehun tells him all about how he’d arrived at the platform late and had to sit awkwardly in a compartment with a bunch of third years and that makes Chanyeol smile faintly, at least, makes the pain in his tummy a little more bearable.  
  
But when the feast ends and one of the Slytherin prefects gathers all of the first years up and shows them to their House, Chanyeol wishes with all his heart that it was Baekhyun by his side. It’s a long walk down to the dungeons, but fortunately their prefect doesn’t keep them for too long once they arrive. She shows them the common room, a long and low room, with huge windows that look out beneath the Great Lake. One of the girls in their group gasps when a Grindylow whirls past the windows, waving it’s long fingers at them all in a distinctively threatening way before it shoots off into the gloom. Chanyeol wishes he could summon up enough interest to care. The prefect clears her throat and Chanyeol is pathetically grateful when she points the boys off down a dark hallway and then turns on her heel to lead the girls in the opposite direction.  
  
There are four other boys sharing his dormitory, including Sehun, and they all exchange vague pleasantries before they get ready for bed. Chanyeol is mostly silent but the other boys don’t press him on it and for that Chanyeol is immensely grateful. He already knows how much of an idiot he’s being, he doesn’t need the others finding out, too.  
  
Eventually they all climb into bed. Sehun offers him one last goodnight from the bed next to his before pulling the curtains of his four poster shut. Chanyeol quickly follows suit. The dormitory is silent, save for soft sounds of the other boys breathing, and Chanyeol stares up at the dark green canopy of his bed for a long minute before he finally gives into his tears.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chanyeol sits next to Sehun at breakfast the next morning. He’d finally fallen asleep with his head all fuzzy from tears and when he’d woken he’d expected the other boys to laugh at him, for Sehun to tease him and call him a baby, but they don’t. Nobody says anything. Sehun just smiles over at him, his teeth white and uneven, and asks Chanyeol how many Professors he thinks will give them homework on their first day.  
  
Sehun stuffs himself silly at breakfast, piling his plate high with scrambled eggs and bacon and hash browns, but Chanyeol doesn’t really have much of an appetite. His parents had always taught him it was important to start every day with a good breakfast, but Chanyeol is so distracted glancing around the Great Hall, trying to catch a glimpse of Baekhyun between the other students and the post owls soaring overhead, that he only manages half a croissant and a glass of pumpkin juice before they have to head down to their first lesson.  
  
The two of them trail back down into the dungeons with the rest of the first year Slytherins for double potions and Chanyeol and Sehun settle themselves on a table at the back. “We can’t sit too close to the front,” Sehun hisses under his breath as they begin to unpack their bags. Sehun pulls out a brand new copy of _Magical Drafts and Potions_ and a handsome brass cauldron that makes Chanyeol’s copper cauldron feel _slightly_ less flashy. He’d tried to tell his parents that the supply list said pewter, that he really didn’t need anything fancy, but they’d been insistent. Chanyeol sighs softly. He misses them, in a way. Maybe he’d write to them tonight, after dinner. It would be nice to see Strix, at any rate.  
  
Chanyeol is so lost in his own thoughts, listening absently to Sehun talk as he takes his ingredients from his bag and lines them up carefully in front of him, that Chanyeol doesn’t realise someone is calling his name until they’re stood right next to him.  
  
“Hey- hello? Chanyeol? That _is_ your name, isn’t it?” Baekhyun asks, sliding into the seat across from him and plonking his bag down on top of the table. A slightly ratty looking set of quills and a pot of ink falls out but Baekhyun pays them no mind, beaming up at Chanyeol. The insides of his robes are a deep, blood red where Chanyeol and Sehun’s are emerald green, and the Gryffindor lion is stitched onto his pocket, right over his heart. If Chanyeol weren’t so shocked he’d think they suited Baekhyun. As it is-  
  
“Baekhyun! I-“ Chanyeol splutters, grabbing for his cauldron when he nearly knocks it flying with a stray arm. Sehun snorts a laugh beside him. “I didn’t- what are you-?”  
  
Baekhyun’s smile fades, just a little. “This is Potions, isn’t it? I checked my timetable three times and I came down with the rest of the Gryffindors so I’m definitely supposed to be here. Aren’t I?” He looks hesitantly between Chanyeol and Sehun.  
  
“No, I mean- yes, yeah, it’s Potions. I just- I didn’t expect to see you, that’s all,” Chanyeol stutters. He wanted to, though, Merlin’s beard he wanted to. “I didn’t think you’d want to sit with me.”  
  
The confusion on Baekhyun’s face is adorable, like a lost puppy, and Chanyeol wishes he didn’t have to be the one to spell things out for him. It was better, though, in the long run, if they both accepted that this was the way things were going to be for the next seven years before Chanyeol got even more attached. “Why?” Baekhyun asks eventually. He looks at Sehun but Sehun just shrugs, his gaze flickering to Chanyeol as well. “Why on earth wouldn’t I want to sit with you? You’re my only friend.”  
  
“But I’m a Slytherin!” Chanyeol all but wails. Some of their classmates turn to look at them and Chanyeol sinks down in his seat, his cheeks flushed. “I’m a Slytherin and you’re a Gryffindor, our Houses can’t be friends.”  
  
Baekhyun looks even more lost but it’s Sehun, this time, who speaks up.  
  
“Oh come on, Chanyeol, don’t talk shit,” Sehun says and Chanyeol gasps in shock. He’d be sent down to the kitchen to wash the dishes with the house-elves if he said a word like that at home. “That was _years_ ago, nobody cares about that stuff anymore.” He glances at Baekhyun briefly then turns to face Chanyeol fully, his gaze steely. “You don’t care about all of that, do you? You’re not into-“  
  
“No! No, no, of course I’m not!” The words fall out of Chanyeol’s mouth in his haste to reassure Sehun and Baekhyun and _himself_ , that he isn’t like that, that he doesn’t believe in blood supremacy and- and Muggle persecution and-. That he doesn’t believe the things he hears his parents talking about, sometimes, that having pure blood makes Chanyeol somehow better than Sehun or Baekhyun or anyone without magic. He doesn’t, he _isn’t_.  
  
Sehun glares at him for another second, just long enough for Chanyeol’s eyes to start burning with panicked tears- _oh no, oh please, don’t cry, please_ \- before his face softens and he smiles. “Okay, good.”  
  
“What stuff?” Baekhyun asks. His bottom lip is jutting out and there’s a little crease in between his eyebrows.  
  
“Oh, nothing,” Sehun says breezily, like he hadn’t just almost reduced Chanyeol to tears, “just stupid, old stuff.”  
  
Baekhyun looks like he’s going to press it further, like he’s going to demand to know exactly what stuff, but their Professor sweeps into the room, gliding through the dungeon in a swirl of periwinkle robes and long, dark hair and he closes his mouth. Chanyeol releases a breath gratefully and watches as Baekhyun grudgingly turns away and begins to unpack his things. His cauldron looks like it’s seen better days, resting unsteadily on three slightly uneven legs, and his textbook is definitely second hand, judging from the state of it. Chanyeol shifts uncomfortably.  
  
The Professor instructs them to turn to page six of their text books and begins to talk them through the first year syllabus. Chanyeol stares down at his book, pretending to be engrossed in the recipe for a Forgetfulness Potion, when he sees Baekhyun turn to look at him from the corner of his eye.  
  
“We can still be friends then, can’t we?” He whispers. Chanyeol looks up, glancing over at Sehun before fixing his gaze on Baekhyun. Baekhyun is smiling at him earnestly, his head tilted to one side like a dragonling. Chanyeol feels totally helpless in the face of it.  
  
“Yes, please. Please can we be friends?” Chanyeol asks anxiously. “Please, I’d really like to be friends.”  
  
Sehun snorts again and Chanyeol wants desperately to kick him. He doesn’t, though. That would be rude. Maybe when they’ve known each other a little longer.  
  
“Then we’re friends,” Baekhyun says firmly, like that’s all that matters, and maybe it is. Maybe Sehun’s right, maybe nobody does care, and if they _did_ , well- that wasn’t any concern of Chanyeol’s, was it? All Chanyeol had to worry about was keeping that smile on Baekhyun’s face.  
  
Their Professor instructs them all to begin brewing and Chanyeol smiles, really smiles, for the first time since stepping off the train at Hogsmeade, as he watches Baekhyun flounder for his cauldron. Chanyeol immediately reaches over and lays a hand on his shoulder, pushing the recipe from their text book under his nose. Baekhyun flushes prettily but he accepts the book gratefully. The knot that’s been in his stomach since last night has loosened completely and Chanyeol can’t believe the difference it makes. He picks up his knife and shows Baekhyun how to cut off the perfect sized sprigs from his Valerian root, and when Baekhyun beams at him over the top of his cauldron, later, his Forgetfulness Potion near enough to perfect, Chanyeol feels his heart flutter inside his chest.  
  
Hogwarts was going to be a lot nicer with friends.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Owlery is quiet at this time of day, save for the gentle cooing sound of hundreds of owls roosting overhead. A few are hooting to one another, starting to rouse as the sun begins to set over the top of the mountains, but they’re Chanyeol’s only company. He’d left dinner early to come up here before everyone left the Great Hall and began to head back to their dormitories. Sehun had just nodded and reached for a second helping of treacle tart, agreeing to meet Chanyeol in the common room later so they could do their Transfiguration homework together.  
  
Hogwarts is everything and nothing that Chanyeol had ever expected.  
  
He loves it, loves his lessons and his House, loves the magic he can feel soaked into every single brick of the school. He and Sehun and Baekhyun have formed something of a little trio, sitting together in all of the lessons they share and exploring every nook and cranny of the castle together. Chanyeol had always been excited to come to Hogwarts, but now that he’s here he’s happier than he ever thought he could be.  
  
Chanyeol had finally gotten around to writing to his parents about a week after he’d left home and they’d replied promptly. Strix had swooped into the Great Hall one morning with the rest of the post owls, her great wings just missing the top of Sehun’s head as she’d landed gracefully between the two of them and stuck her foot out. Chanyeol had recognised their family seal immediately and his fingers had been shaking as he untied the letter from Strix’s leg.  
  
They’d congratulated him on making Slytherin, wished him well in the start of his studies. _If you need anything, just write,_ they’d said. _Love and affection always, Mother and Father._  
  
Chanyeol had blinked back the tears and stuffed the letter hastily into his satchel before anyone could see. Sehun had been too busy shovelling baked beans into his mouth to notice and nobody else cared much about any post that a first year might receive. Strix had nibbled on his fingers affectionately, though, before taking flight again, and that had put a smile back on his face, at least.  
  
Chanyeol has been in semi-regular contact with his parents ever since then. The sight of Strix soaring into the Great Hall every few weeks is a welcome one, certainly. Chanyeol is always happy to hear that his parents are well and he tries to fill them in on his activities, too, tells them all about his dormitory and his lessons, about which Professors he likes and which subjects he thinks are difficult. It was only when the letter arrived last week, asking to know more about his new friends, that Chanyeol had found himself unsure, for the first time, of what to write back.  
  
It had taken him about three days and several drafts, discarded replies balled up and thrown into the common room fire, before Chanyeol had finally written a reply he was somewhat satisfied with. It’s that same letter that Chanyeol pulls out of his bag now, rolled and tied neatly with a strip of silver ribbon.  
  
His parents aren’t bad people. At least, Chanyeol doesn’t _think_ they are, but he’d still had to think long and hard about how much to tell them about Baekhyun. His parents both worked with Muggle-born wizards and witches every day at the ministry; Chanyeol had even met some, occasionally, when his parents had taken him along to dinner parties, and they had always been polite enough in public, but Chanyeol had heard the way his parents would sigh at home later. He could tell from the tone of their voices when they spoke about how few pure blood families there were left, that so many wizards had Muggle blood in their ancestry, that it wasn’t a compliment.  
  
They wouldn’t approve of Baekhyun. Chanyeol knew they would try to discourage Chanyeol from being friends with someone like him, a Muggle-born boy from a family with little social standing. But none of that matters to Chanyeol, none of it. He’d meant what he’d said to Sehun in that first Potions lesson, Chanyeol didn’t think he was better than anyone, didn’t think he had better blood than Baekhyun. All Chanyeol cared about was that Baekhyun was funny and kind. That he was a natural at Charms and liked to go out into the castle grounds and feed toast to the Giant Squid, even though he’d nearly fallen over in shock the first time he’d seen it’s tentacles waving lazily above the surface of the Black Lake.  
  
Chanyeol sighs and looks at the letter one last time, fingering the ribbon hesitantly before calling Strix down to him. He hears a hoot and Chanyeol holds his arm out for the Eagle Owl as she descends on him from the rafters. Her weight is heavy and familiar and comforting as she settles on his arm, the claws of one foot curling around his forearm to keep her balance as she holds her leg out.  
  
Chanyeol is just fastening his letter to Strix’s leg when the door creaks open behind him and he jumps. Strix rustles her feathers indignantly and Chanyeol relaxes when he hears a familiar laugh.  
  
“There you are, scaredy-cat,” Baekhyun teases. He shuts the door behind him and immediately approaches Chanyeol.  
  
“How did you know where I was?” Chanyeol asks, watching as Baekhyun reaches out a hand to scratch Strix just above her wing joint.  
  
“I came over to see if you and Sehun wanted to go and explore in the library before curfew but you weren’t there,” Baekhyun says, turning his attention up to Chanyeol’s face. “Sehun said you’d come up to the Owlery to send a letter but I’ve never been up here before so it took me ages to find.” Baekhyun moves away from Chanyeol and looks up, his eyes wide with wonder as he gazes up at all the owls. Baekhyun looks like that often, mesmerised, his mouth slightly ajar as he takes in some new magic that Chanyeol has taken for granted his entire life. Chanyeol is stupidly, childishly jealous of Baekhyun’s naivety, sometimes, when he wonders what it must feel like to experience Hogwarts the way Baekhyun is, without any prior knowledge of magic at all.  
  
“Yeah, I- I’m just writing to my parents, that’s all.” Chanyeol says. His arm is straining beneath Strix’s weight and Chanyeol encourages her to climb up onto his shoulder for now, her talons sharp through his robe as she settles there.  
  
“Oh, right,” Baekhyun says. He stares up at the owls for a little longer before turning to look at Chanyeol with a tiny smile on his face. “It must be nice, to be able to talk to them. I’d give anything to be able to talk to my mum and dad, but I don’t have a phone or anything.”  
  
He sounds sad but Chanyeol is too busy staring at Baekhyun in confusion to notice.  
  
“A phone? Is that one of those- those things where you-“ Chanyeol holds his hand up to his ear in a vague approximation of what he thinks a phone does. He’d read about them, once, in a book he’d found in his father’s library. Chanyeol had been very careful to put that book back exactly where he’d found it, when he was finished. Baekhyun nods and smiles fondly.  
  
“Yeah, but they don’t work here. Nothing electrical does. I suppose I’ll just have to wait until I go home at Christmas,” Baekhyun shrugs but Chanyeol is no less confused than he was a minute ago.  
  
“I don’t understand. Why don’t you just send an owl?”  
  
Baekhyun is the one looking at Chanyeol like he has two heads, now. Chanyeol smiles nervously.  
  
“I don’t have an owl, remember? Besides, I don’t know what the neighbours would say if they saw an owl knocking on my parents’ front door. It’s supposed to be a secret, isn’t it? This whole magic thing?”  
  
“You don’t have an owl-“ Chanyeol starts incredulously. Baekhyun and Chanyeol really had grown up in completely different worlds. “Baekhyun, you can use one of the school owls.” The expression on Baekhyun’s face is different, now, one that Chanyeol’s never seen before. He doesn’t like it. “Nobody told you about the school owls?” Chanyeol asks and Baekhyun shakes his head. Chanyeol wants to hold him, wants to reach out and touch him, lace their fingers together like they had that first night, before they’d been sorted. They haven’t talked about that since but Baekhyun looks so out of sorts that Chanyeol wants to do _something_.  
  
“All of these owls here at the bottom,” Chanyeol says instead, showing Baekhyun the rows upon rows of Barn and Tawny owls roosting on the lowest rungs of the tower. “They’re all school owls. Anybody can use them. Or you could-“ Chanyeol starts shyly. Baekhyun is staring at the owls with glassy eyes. It reminds Chanyeol of the way he’d looked when they’d first met, how Baekhyun had clung to his mother on the platform before he’d boarded the train. “You can use Strix, if you want.” Baekhyun’s head whips up but Chanyeol continues speaking, even though he can feel his cheeks turning red. “I don’t mind, you can use her any time you like. You don’t even have to ask. She’s really fast, and strong, she could probably do a round journey to your parents in about three days.”  
  
Baekhyun was from the Lake District somewhere, a small little town that Chanyeol had never heard of, but it was much closer to Hogwarts than Chanyeol’s own home in West London. Baekhyun would hardly have to wait any time at all.  
  
“Really? You’re sure you don’t mind?” Baekhyun sounds choked but Chanyeol pretends not to notice.  
  
“No, not at all. Please, Baekhyun, please use her.” Chanyeol can’t imagine how Baekhyun must have been feeling all of this time, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to speak to his family again until he left Hogwarts. No wonder he was so upset at King’s Cross. “She’ll probably take a week to come back with my parents’ reply but you can borrow her as soon as she gets back. Please write to your parents, Baekhyunnie. I bet they’re worried about you.”  
  
Baekhyun nods vigorously and his smile is shaky but it’s there, pulling at the corners of his lips. “I will,” he almost whispers. “Thank you, Chanyeol.”  
  
“You’re welcome,” Chanyeol stutters. His chest feels warm and Chanyeol distracts himself by holding his arm back out for Strix and heading over to the window. The Eagle Owl hops down his arm and spreads her wings, flapping them once, twice, before leaping from his arm and out into the cool October air. Chanyeol watches her go, staring at her silhouette as she glides out across the Lake until she disappears into the dusk. Baekhyun comes to stand by his side and they stare out over the grounds together in silence for a while. Chanyeol is the first to break it.  
  
“If you need anything, if you need any help or if you don’t know something or if all the magic- if it- if it’s too much and you just need to talk, I’m here,” Chanyeol says. He can feel his face flood with colour and he purposely doesn’t look at Baekhyun, not even when he can feel Baekhyun’s eyes boring into the side of his head. “I just- it must be really hard for you, coming here, not knowing anyone or anything and being away from home. It must be so different to what you’re used to but I think you’re really, really brave so I just- if I can help, I want to.”  
  
Chanyeol’s fingers curl so hard into the window ledge that his knuckles turn white. Silence stretches between them again and Chanyeol is just about ready to throw himself through the window in shame before Baekhyun is touching his elbow. The touch is only light, brief, but Chanyeol feels it all the same.  
  
“I will,” Baekhyun says softly. Chanyeol looks down and that sad expression has finally disappeared from his face. In fact, Baekhyun’s smiling now, that little square smile that Chanyeol is rapidly growing familiar with. “Thank you, Chanyeol. Maybe I could tell you about some Muggle stuff, too, if you wanted,” Baekhyun offers. “I never did teach you how to use Muggle money.”  
  
Chanyeol nods so vigorously his hair falls down over his eyes. “Yes, please. I’d like that a lot.”  
  
Baekhyun beams, his eyes crinkling at the corners. The owls around them are starting to stir in earnest, stretching up from their perches as they get ready to go out hunting.  
  
“It’s late, we should probably go back to our common rooms,” Chanyeol says, turning away from the window. Baekhyun follows after him immediately, their shoulders brushing as they make their way out of the Owlery and down the spiral staircase back into the castle. They walk through the hallways together, chatting absently about home and their families. When they get to the stretch of corridor that leads up to the Gryffindor tower they pause to say their goodbyes.  
  
“I’ll see you in Potions in the morning,” Baekhyun says. Chanyeol nods, already looking forward to it. “Thank you again, for the owls and for- just thank you.” Baekhyun smiles, his eyes twinkling.  
  
“It’s nothing, honestly,” Chanyeol splutters. Baekhyun’s smile widens as he wishes Chanyeol goodnight and then turns to walk away. Chanyeol stands for a moment, watching him go, and when he turns to walk the long way down to the dungeons it’s with the letter he’d written to his parents on his mind that he does so.  
  
He was nervous about his parents’ reply, certainly. But he wasn’t ashamed of Baekhyun, or their friendship, and if his parents couldn’t accept that Chanyeol’s best friend was a Muggle-born, then that was their problem, not his.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The remainder of their first year passes by at an almost astonishing speed.  
  
His parents’ reply to that owl is one of muted, subtle disapproval and Chanyeol is a little worried at first, feels the weight of it pressing down on his shoulders. At least, he does until Baekhyun approaches him a few days later with a roll of parchment at least twelve inches long and a bashful smile on his face.  
  
Chanyeol drags him up to the Owlery and helps Baekhyun to roll and seal the letter with one of his strips of silver ribbon, Strix holding one leg out patiently as Baekhyun fumbles to fasten the letter. She nibbles on Baekhyun’s ear affectionately before soaring out through the window and the look on Baekhyun’s face, the way his voice shakes just a little as he thanks Chanyeol all the way down the spiral staircase, is enough to push any worries of what his parents thought of their friendship to the absolute back of Chanyeol’s mind.  
  
Everything else after that is simple.  
  
Chanyeol and Sehun stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays but Baekhyun goes home to his family and Chanyeol isn’t prepared for how much he misses his friend. Sehun is fun and he makes him laugh and Chanyeol is immensely glad that he doesn’t have to spend two weeks in their dormitory by himself, the Great Lake bathing the room in a pale green glow, but it isn’t the same as having Baekhyun by his side.  
  
Chanyeol writes to Baekhyun, just like he’d promised he would, and Baekhyun replies in kind. Strix sweeps into the Great Hall with the rest of the post owls halfway through breakfast on Christmas morning, covered in snow, and dumps a huge box of round Muggle chocolates wrapped in fancy gold foil in front of Chanyeol’s cornflakes.  
  
When Baekhyun returns after Christmas he looks happier than Chanyeol has ever seen him, the smile on his face so bright as the three of them settle down in Potions together that even Sehun comments on it. But Baekhyun just laughs, pulling out his ratty old textbook and flicking through it absently.  
  
He looks happier, more settled, and Chanyeol can’t help the way he sticks to Baekhyun’s side even more.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Spring takes over the castle quickly. The last of the snow melts away by the end of March and the wind that whips against their cheeks as they sit high up in the stands to watch Quidditch, as they run from the greenhouses back up to the castle for their next lesson, is significantly warmer than it has been for months.  
  
Their exams come soon after and the three of them hole themselves up in the library at Chanyeol’s insistence, though Sehun and Baekhyun spend more time charming Chanyeol’s belongings to float across the desk than doing any actual revision. But their exams pass quickly enough and the three of them spend the last few weeks of term soaking up the warmth of the sun as it spills across the castle grounds. Baekhyun shucks off his shoes and socks, dipping his feet into the cool lake. Sehun almost dies of laughter at the way he shrieks when the Giant Squid tickles his toes.  
  
Chanyeol is so happy, so content, that he doesn’t even realise that all of this just means that their first year is drawing to a close and that they’ll all have to go back home, soon. He’ll have to go back home to his parents and he won’t see any of his friends, won’t see _Baekhyun_ , for six long weeks.  
  
He tries not to think about it, but before Chanyeol knows it the three of them are back on the Hogwarts express, the silhouette of the castle disappearing behind a mountain as the train pulls away from Hogsmeade and begins the long journey back to London.  
  
They buy enough sweets that Chanyeol feels sick and Strix folds herself neatly into Baekhyun’s lap, even though she’s grown so much over the past year that she almost dwarfs him. Still, they arrive at King’s Cross sooner than Chanyeol is ready for and the three of them gather up all of their belongings and join the horde of students climbing down onto the platform.  
  
Chanyeol hugs both Sehun and Baekhyun in turn. Sehun scoffs and punches him in the shoulder but Baekhyun hugs back just as tight, going up onto his tiptoes to wrap his arms around Chanyeol’s shoulders.  
  
“I’ll write to you,” Chanyeol promises. It’s a little embarrassing, the way he can’t let Baekhyun go, but when Baekhyun presses his face into the dip of Chanyeol’s neck Chanyeol doesn’t feel quite so bad. “I promise, every week. I’ll send Strix and then you can write back, okay?”  
  
Baekhyun is the first to pull away but he’s smiling as he does so. “Okay,” Baekhyun nods. Chanyeol can see Baekhyun’s family approaching from over his shoulder so he reaches for his trunk and steps away. “See you in September!” Baekhyun calls, before he’s turning too, hauling his trunk along behind him with considerable difficulty across the crowded platform.  
  
Chanyeol doesn’t watch him for too long. He heads over to where he can see his parents are waiting and, despite himself, he smiles when his father claps a hand on his shoulder, when his mother swoops down to press a kiss to the crown of his head. His mother offers out her arm to Chanyeol, to side-along apparate them home. Chanyeol casts a quick look over his shoulder before he takes it but Baekhyun and his family are already gone, vanished from view. Chanyeol sighs and lays his hand on his mother’s forearm, the fingers of his other arm clutched tightly around Strix’s cage.  
  
September felt like a lifetime away and Chanyeol missed Baekhyun already.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The next few years pass in much the same way.  
  
Chanyeol spends what feels like the entirety of each summer frantically writing to Baekhyun, sitting in his bedroom and staring out of the window, waiting for Strix to appear over the horizon with a letter hanging from her leg. Baekhyun tells him everything, about the way he spends the summer of their second year fishing with his dad, or how his dog fell into a lake and Baekhyun had to climb in after him. Baekhyun tells Chanyeol how weird it feels, being back in the Muggle world when he knows that there’s magic out there, that there’s magic inside him. The letters that Chanyeol likes the most, though, are the ones when Baekhyun tells Chanyeol how much he misses him. Chanyeol has always been open with his feelings, has always been emotional, but to hear the same things expressed by Baekhyun make him feel a little better. They ease his mind that at least he isn’t the only one cooped up at home pining for his friend.  
  
Their little group of three when they’re back at school occasionally becomes four when Baekhyun introduces Chanyeol and Sehun to his friend Jongin. Jongin is a Hufflepuff from their year, who Chanyeol vaguely knows from sight, but he’s a Muggle-born, like Baekhyun. The two of them sit next to each other with their heads bent low, laughing about this or that Muggle thing that Chanyeol doesn’t understand in the slightest. It’s nice, in a way, and Chanyeol is happy that Baekhyun has a friend who understands him like that. For as much as Baekhyun loves magic and as much as he’s growing to be a fantastic wizard, Chanyeol had seen how homesick he was in first year, so it can only be good for him to have a friend who feels so familiar in a world that is like nothing he had ever thought he would know. Despite that, Chanyeol still feels a tightness in his gut, sometimes, when he looks at the pair of them. It’s stupid and childish and Chanyeol doesn’t even understand it, so he keeps it to himself, pushes the feeling down. But he’s still grateful when Jongin hangs out with his Hufflepuff friends instead of them, or when he’s kept busy with Quidditch practice.  
  
But still he and Baekhyun become closer and closer with each passing year and Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever cared about another person so much in his entire life, so much that his whole body aches with it.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
When a handsome Screech Owl taps on Chanyeol’s window early one morning during the summer before third year, bearing a letter emblazoned with the Hogwarts seal, Chanyeol climbs from his bed so quickly that he almost trips over the covers still twisted around his legs. It’s a letter asking what additional subjects he’d like to take next year and Chanyeol is already so certain of his choices that he quickly grabs a quill and a pot of ink from his desk and hastily fills out the form, placating the owl with some of Strix’s owl treats before refastening the letter to it’s leg and sending it off into the bright summer morning.  
  
He doesn’t tell his parents right away but their reaction, when he does, is exactly what Chanyeol has come to expect.  
  
“Care of Magical Creatures _and_ Muggle Studies?” Chanyeol’s mother says over breakfast the day Chanyeol receives another letter from school, confirming his choices and supplies list for the new year. “They’re very… soft subjects, sweetheart,” she says carefully. Chanyeol stabs his fork moodily into his scrambled eggs. They wobble unappetisingly.  
  
“They’re not _soft_ subjects,” Chanyeol defends. “They’re important and interesting and things that I really, really care about.”  
  
“What your mother means is that they’re not the most academic subjects that you could have taken,” Chanyeol’s father says. He has his fingers curled around a goblet of pumpkin juice and Chanyeol’s Hogwarts letter rolled out in front of him on the table. “If you want to get a job at the Ministry when you leave school the subjects you take at N.E.W.T level need to be as strong as possible and you’re such a clever boy, Chanyeol, you could have-“  
  
“I picked Ancient Runes, as well,” Chanyeol says. He’d only picked it because he knew it would appease his parents, knew they would approve of at least one of his choices, this way. Just as he’d predicted his father’s expression softens, just a little.  
  
“Yes, I see that, and it’s a much more appropriate choice. Only the brightest wizards last very long in the study of Ancient Runes. I suppose Care of Magical Creatures would be useful were you to work for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, though that’s not the first department I would choose for my son. But Muggle Studies, Chanyeol? Honestly.” His parents share an exasperated look across the table and Chanyeol feels his temper beginning to fray.  
  
“It’s important!” Chanyeol says angrily, though he backs down a little at the look on his mother’s face. Their house-elf approaches with a fresh platter of toast and Chanyeol takes a piece grudgingly with a small thank you. The elf bows happily and retreats. “I could- there’s Muggle Liaison and- and Misuse of Muggle Artefacts and loads of other offices. But even if I don’t work at the Ministry like you, why shouldn’t I know more about Muggles? We’re all people, aren’t we?” Chanyeol can feel his eyes starting to burn with tears and he blinks rapidly. “I- magic or not, we all have to live together, so why shouldn’t I do Muggle Studies?”  
  
There’s a tense moment of silence around the table. Chanyeol takes a bite of toast so large that he nearly chokes on it and he has to wash it down with pumpkin juice.  
  
“Alright, if you insist,” Chanyeol’s mother sighs. Chanyeol blinks up at her. “I suppose there’s nothing to be gained by trying to convince you otherwise, the letter has already been sent.” She looks at Chanyeol from across the table and whilst he may be taller than his mother now, Chanyeol still feels like a boy beneath the weight of her gaze. “But you must promise that you will apply yourself with utmost diligence to all of your subjects, Chanyeol. Your O.W.Ls are only two years away and we expect you to achieve top marks.”  
  
“I understand,” Chanyeol says, nodding his head so hard that his fringe falls down across his forehead. He puts his toast down. “May I be excused?”  
  
“You may,” his mother says and the second those words leave her lips Chanyeol is up out of his seat, bounding across the kitchen. He’s vaguely aware of his father’s voice muttering “ _at least he doesn’t want to take up Quidditch,_ ” through the kitchen wall but Chanyeol pays it no heed as he takes the stairs to his bedroom two at a time. There’s a two day old letter from Baekhyun curled up on his desk. Chanyeol immediately drops into his desk chair and pulls out a quill and ink. He couldn’t wait to tell Baekhyun he had been accepted onto Muggle Studies. He can see the other boy’s expression in his mind, can clearly envisage that soft, fond upturn to his lips that Baekhyun wears around him sometimes, when Chanyeol does or says something that many would laugh at him for. It’s with that thought in mind that Chanyeol is able to relax, the tension leaking out of his entire frame despite his parents’ obvious disapproval. They would be taking him to Diagon Alley for supplies in a few days and Chanyeol is almost certain he can convince them buy him Wilhelm Wigworthy’s entire back catalogue of books. Chanyeol had promised to get good marks in his exams, after all, and what better way was there for him to do that than get a head start on his required reading.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Baekhyun? Would Muggles be able to use telephones without electricity?” It’s only early in the evening and there are plenty of other students milling around in the library, but Chanyeol is still careful to keep his voice soft. Baekhyun looks up from where he’s attempting to draw a star chart from the night he was born and blinks at Chanyeol.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Telephones,” Chanyeol says again, looking back down at his essay briefly. “I mean, they’re important for communication, aren’t they? But what if there was no electricity, what would the Muggles do then?”  
  
Baekhyun laughs and Chanyeol watches as he tickles the underside of his chin with his quill before speaking. “Well…” Baekhyun starts, “if there’s no electricity that means no computers, either, so we- they- they’d have to write letters, I suppose.”  
  
Chanyeol scribbles that down on a spare scrap of parchment. “But Muggles don’t use owl post, so how do they send them?” Chanyeol asks earnestly. He doesn’t miss the way Baekhyun’s smiling at him, all sly and awfully amused, the way he always looks when Chanyeol asks for help with his Muggle Studies homework. For all of that, though, Baekhyun never laughs at him. Not like Sehun, who’d laughed so hard when Chanyeol first told him he’d picked it that he’d cried. Even Jongin had smiled a little uncertainly, as though Chanyeol was joking, as though he couldn’t think of any conceivable reason that Chanyeol would ever voluntarily pick Muggle Studies. But not Baekhyun.  
  
“Through the postman, of course,” Baekhyun says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “That’s what people used to do back in the days before electricity, but then you end up stuck with the same issue as owl post, it takes _so_ long. Being able to just ring someone whenever you want is so much more convenient.”  
  
Chanyeol nods, adding all of that to his notes before smiling up at Baekhyun. “Thanks, Baekhyunnie,” he says. Baekhyun chuckles softly.  
  
“Any time.”  
  
Chanyeol pulls his textbook closer, lying it down across his essay so he can flip through the chapter on electricity to find sources to back up what Baekhyun had told him. He expects Baekhyun to do the same, expects to hear the sound of his quill scratching over parchment as Baekhyun attempts to plot out the position of the planets exactly as they were thirteen years ago, but he doesn’t. Chanyeol stares down at the page he’d stopped on for a few minutes, reading the same line over and over again, before he glances up to see Baekhyun still watching him.  
  
“What?” Chanyeol asks. It always makes Chanyeol squirm when Baekhyun stares at him like that, almost without blinking. He’s been doing it ever since they came back to school in September and it’s been months, now, but it still makes Chanyeol feel a little on edge.  
  
“Nothing,” Baekhyun says casually. “It’s just… you’re really into Muggle Studies, aren’t you?”  
  
It’s not an accusation, Chanyeol knows it isn’t, not coming from Baekhyun, but it still puts Chanyeol on the defensive.  
  
“Yeah,” he answers, thumbing the corner of his textbook. It’s worn already, the spine cracked from the amount of times Chanyeol has rifled through it. “Why? Is that weird to you?” Chanyeol remembers the look on his father’s face when he’d taken him to Flourish and Blotts for his school books and Chanyeol dog-ears the edge of his page angrily.  
  
“No, it’s not weird.” Baekhyun has put his quill down and Chanyeol watches, distracted, as he folds his hands neatly across the top of his homework. Baekhyun has very pretty hands, Chanyeol thinks, soft and elegant and made to do magic. Not like Chanyeol’s, big and clumsy and constantly covered in ink. “I think it’s really cool, actually,” Baekhyun is saying and Chanyeol jerks his head up. “I know that most wizards don’t really care about Muggles, not unless they’re already Muggle-borns to start with, but…” Baekhyun looks away from Chanyeol for just a second but it’s enough for Chanyeol to see the way he looks down at his own hands. “I think it’d be good if wizards knew more. Maybe there wouldn’t be so many misunderstandings about Muggles then.”  
  
“I think so too,” Chanyeol says fiercely. Both of Baekhyun’s eyebrows raise until they disappear beneath his fringe. “My parents didn’t want me to do it. They- they said it’s a soft subject but I know what they really think, they don’t think studying Muggles and getting a better understanding of them is worth a minute of a pure-blood’s time.” It’s the first time Chanyeol admitted that out loud to anyone and that’s shame he can feel, settled heavily in his stomach, that his parents don’t care a single jot about the lives of anyone that isn’t like them.  
  
“Really?” Baekhyun asks, voice soft. Chanyeol shakes his head. “How come you are, then?”  
  
“Because it’s important,” Chanyeol says, just like he had to his parents all those months ago. “What’s the difference between us and Muggles? A little bit of magical blood and that’s it.” Chanyeol can feel his eyes starting to burn and he has force himself to lower his voice before they get kicked out of the library. Baekhyun is staring at him wide-eyed but Chanyeol continues on, his voice a low hiss. “We hide ourselves away from the Muggle world and then complain that we have to live in secret, but how can we ever expect Muggles to understand our ways when we don’t care about theirs? We’re all human, aren’t we? You might be a Muggle-born and I might be a pure-blood,” Chanyeol scoffs the word, “but neither of us is better than the other. So that’s why I’m doing Muggle Studies, because there are too many wizards who go around acting like they’re better than Muggles and I don’t want to be one of them.”  
  
Baekhyun doesn’t say anything for a long time and Chanyeol feels himself starting to deflate. A couple of other students from nearby tables had glanced over at them while Chanyeol was ranting and he stares down at the table, half tempted to sink right down into his seat. But then Baekhyun is reaching across the table and laying his hand across the top of Chanyeol’s.  
  
“Like I said, really cool,” Baekhyun says softly but he’s smiling, a beautiful little smile that curves at the edges of his lips and all the way up into his cheeks. Chanyeol flushes bright red but he doesn’t move his hand, leaves it lying there when Baekhyun strokes his knuckles once, twice, and then pulls away.  
  
Neither of them say anything more and Chanyeol plays with his tie, loosening the knot about his neck until he feels his body temperature begin to turn back to normal.  
  
“So, astronomy,” Baekhyun says, quill back in hand as he drags his parchment across the desk and shoves it under Chanyeol’s nose. “I need your help. I’ve been at this for half an hour and I still have no idea where the hell Neptune is supposed to be.”  
  
Chanyeol laughs, loud and wild enough that one of their neighbours hushes him angrily, and he dips his head down to help Baekhyun. Baekhyun shifts around to his side of the table, close enough that their knees brush every time either of them moves, and Chanyeol isn’t sure if it’s that or the way Baekhyun keeps smiling up at him, that has Chanyeol’s heart beating hard enough that it could almost leap out of his chest at any minute.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
It’s towards the end of their fourth year that Baekhyun asks Chanyeol to come and spend some of the summer holidays with him.  
  
Chanyeol thinks he’s joking, at first, and he says as much. But Baekhyun just laughs in reply, his entire face lighting up with mischief. “I already asked Mum and Dad if it’s okay, so if you want to-“ Baekhyun says. Chanyeol doesn’t give him a chance to say any more before he’s nodding his head so vigorously that his too long hair falls down into his eyes.  
  
The chance to spend the summer holidays with Baekhyun and his family, in their Muggle home, completely without magic, feels like an offer that’s almost too good to be true. When Chanyeol owls his parents to ask if it’s okay he has to force himself not to get carried away at the thought of it.  
  
Chanyeol is jittery every morning at breakfast, scouring the flock of post owls that soar beneath the enchanted ceiling until he finally spots Strix, almost two weeks later. The reply is exactly as Chanyeol expected, pretty polite words that tell Chanyeol no without actually saying the word, but he forcefully bites back his disappointment. It isn’t long until the end of the school year and Chanyeol is confident that once he gets home he can convince his parents to change their minds.  
  
It only takes a week of constant badgering and promises to be on his absolute best behaviour the entire time before they do. Chanyeol sends Strix off to Baekhyun reconfirming the date and double checking that this is really okay, and when she returns three days later with Baekhyun’s excited reply Chanyeol finally allows himself to believe that this is really happening.  
  
His parents set up a portkey and that in itself is a novel experience for Chanyeol. He’s used to travelling by floo but Baekhyun’s home isn’t connected to the floo network. Of _course_ it isn’t. It makes Chanyeol’s entire body tremble with excitement as he follows his parents to the secluded little park in the middle of their street.  
  
The punctured football that Chanyeol’s parents lead them to is so nondescript that Chanyeol would have missed it if he were alone, but the sensation when he touches it, a sharp jerk behind his bellybutton that makes his insides feel like they’re being cleaved out with a fishhook, however, isn’t. Chanyeol staggers when the portkey drops them and it’s only his mother’s hand on his shoulder that keeps him upright.  
  
Chanyeol soon gets over it, though, when he looks up. The street that they’ve been dropped in couldn’t be more different from the one they’d left behind in London. The road is narrow and winding, the little grey stone cottages dwarfed by the hills raising up against the skyline behind them. It looks like something from the front of a postcard and Chanyeol has to hurry to catch up with his parents when they begin to stride off down the street.  
  
Chanyeol had dressed in the most innocuous clothing he owns, a pair of jeans and a thin jumper beneath a plain, black travelling cloak, but his parents are dressed in their full finery and Chanyeol is only glad that there doesn’t seem to be anyone else in the street as they stop in front of a small cottage at the end of the lane.  
  
“Is this the house?” Chanyeol’s father asks him, peering over Chanyeol’s shoulder. Chanyeol can’t tell if he looks curious or concerned, but quickly decides he’s better not knowing.  
  
“I- I think so,” Chanyeol answers, dropping his hand down nervously to rest on the wooden gate at the front of the garden. It swings open beneath his touch, creaking loudly.  
  
“Alright, I suppose this is where we leave you, then,” his mother says and Chanyeol looks up at her. She’s smiling, at least, though Chanyeol can’t help but think it looks a little tight. “Do try to behave yourself, Chanyeol. We’ll be back to collect you in two weeks.”  
  
“I will,” Chanyeol promises, leaning in dutifully to hug both of his parents. “Thank you,” he says and they share a look that Chanyeol doesn’t quite understand before urging him through the gate. The garden is overgrown in a rustic, charming sort of way, and Chanyeol follows the path through the grass to the front door. He glances back over his shoulder but his parents are already gone, disapparated probably. Chanyeol sighs and lifts his hand to knock.  
  
Sharp, high pitched barking erupts immediately and Chanyeol doesn’t bother to bite back his smile.  
  
“Alright, _alright_ , I know, stupid dog,” Baekhyun’s voice sounds through the door a fraction of a second before it’s flung open. “Chanyeol! You made it!” Baekhyun sounds delighted, his smile stretching the whole length of his face, and Chanyeol doesn’t even have a chance to reply before he has his arms full of his best friend.  
  
“Yeah- yeah I made it,” Chanyeol laughs, wrapping his arms around Baekhyun in return and hunching his frame down to bury his face in Baekhyun’s neck. He’s so preoccupied with clinging to Baekhyun, like he’s scared that his parents are going to come back and change their minds, take him back to London with them, that Chanyeol startles when he feels something warm brush against his leg.  
  
“It’s just Mongryong,” Baekhyun tells him. Chanyeol looks down and sure enough Baekhyun’s Corgi is staring up at him with dark eyes, his long tongue hanging out of one side of his mouth. He barks happily and Baekhyun laughs again. “Come on, come in, Mum’s just put the kettle on,” Baekhyun says, grabbing hold of Chanyeol’s bicep and dragging him into the house. Mongryong trots after them dutifully and Chanyeol pauses briefly by the door to slip his shoes off. “Did your parents leave already?” Baekhyun asks, peering over Chanyeol’s shoulder before shutting the front door.  
  
“Yeah, they- they couldn’t stay long. I’m sorry,” Chanyeol says uneasily. Keeping his parents at arms length is probably for the best at the minute, but their hasty departure still makes Chanyeol squirm. Baekhyun must read the expression on his face because he shrugs but his smile is easy as he takes Chanyeol’s bag and dumps it at the bottom of the stairs.  
  
“That’s alright, it’s you my parents really want to meet anyway.”  
  
Baekhyun takes Chanyeol’s cloak, hanging it on a peg by the door that’s already heaving under the weight of coats and cardigans and jumpers, and then leads Chanyeol down the narrow hallway and into the living room. Chanyeol tries not to gawk but he just can’t help himself. Baekhyun’s house is so normal, so _regular_ , but also so very different in a way that takes Chanyeol completely by surprise. He doesn’t know what he expected, really, but Chanyeol berates himself for his assumption that a Muggle home would be something so notably different all the same.  
  
The living room is small and quaint and cosy and Baekhyun’s mother envelops Chanyeol in a bear hug that takes him completely by surprise. She hugs him harder than Chanyeol’s own mother has ever hugged him in his entire life and Chanyeol is vaguely aware of Baekhyun’s laughter in the background as Chanyeol returns the embrace uncertainly.  
  
“Don’t choke him, Mum,” Baekhyun says, grabbing hold of Chanyeol again once his mother releases him and pushing him down into an armchair. The chairs are overstuffed and mismatched and Chanyeol’s groans as he sinks down into it, but he’s too busy staring at the small television set in the corner of the room to worry about it overly.  
  
Baekhyun’s father pushes a hot mug of tea into his hands and Chanyeol takes it gratefully, tearing his eyes away from the television when Baekhyun settles down beside him on the arm of the chair. Baekhyun throws one arm over the back of Chanyeol’s shoulders, his hand resting on Chanyeol’s shoulder and it’s then that Chanyeol releases the breath he hadn’t even known he was holding, his entire body relaxing beneath the weight of Baekhyun’s warm palm.  
  
Baekhyun’s parents take turns interrogating him about everything, about himself and his family, about magic and school and Baekhyun, but it’s nice, friendly, and Chanyeol can feel all of the warmth that he has ever associated with Baekhyun emanating from the two people that had brought his best friend into the world.  
  
Mongryong is sleeping in front of the empty fireplace, his tongue lolling, by the time Baekhyun asks if they can be excused. His mother nods, promising that she’ll let them know when tea’s ready, and Baekhyun takes Chanyeol by the hand to lead him out of the room.  
  
“Sorry about them,” Baekhyun says when they get to the bottom of the stairs. He grabs Chanyeol’s backpack and smiles.  
  
“No!” Chanyeol shakes his head, “No, it’s okay. I didn’t mind, I- they’re really nice.”  
  
Baekhyun’s smile widens. “Where do you think I got all of my charm from?” Chanyeol snorts and Baekhyun kicks out at him playfully. The staircase is creaking beneath them as they walk but Chanyeol is distracted by the photographs hanging on the walls. They’re all of family, of Baekhyun and his parents, or his brother, or just Baekhyun alone, at varying ages and heights. None of them are moving, though, all of the faces and smiles frozen forever in time. It’s a little unnerving.  
  
“-they’re just really into magic, though,” Baekhyun is saying when they reach the landing. Chanyeol pulls his gaze away from the photographs.  
  
“Yeah?” Chanyeol asks, even though the way Baekhyun’s parents had wanted to know absolutely everything about Hogwarts should have been answer enough in itself. It’s just that based on everything Chanyeol has ever been told about Muggle attitudes to magic, they _shouldn’t_ be this interested. Muggles are afraid of magic, at least that’s what Chanyeol’s history books have always told him, that’s why wizards have always had to hide themselves away. But, up until he’d met Baekhyun, everything Chanyeol knew about Muggles he’d learnt from wizards, and Chanyeol is quickly learning that wizards can’t always be trusted to tell the truth.  
  
“Yeah, totally,” Baekhyun replies. “I can’t wait until we’re old enough to do magic outside of school. They keep asking me to show them something and it sounds so uncool when I have to tell them I can’t.”  
  
“It’s still gonna be uncool when it’s _you_ that’s the one showing them, though,” Chanyeol teases. Baekhyun swings for him again and Chanyeol giggles as he quickly steps back out of range.  
  
“Get in here, idiot, before I change my mind about letting you stay.” Baekhyun pushes open what is clearly his bedroom door and Chanyeol hurries in after him.  
  
Chanyeol isn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but whatever it was, this room is so perfectly _Baekhyun_ that Chanyeol feels at home almost as soon as he steps over the threshold. It’s tiny and cramped, with most of the space taken over by the wardrobe and a little set of drawers that Baekhyun is also using as a desk. Baekhyun’s Hogwarts trunk lies open at the bottom of his bed, his scarlet and gold Gryffindor scarf draped like a streamer over one side. Baekhyun dumps Chanyeol’s bag down next to it.  
  
“We’ll have to share the bed and it can get a little hot at night,” Baekhyun says, watching Chanyeol carefully as he patrols around his little bedroom. “But I’ll leave the window open for us and we can sleep on top of the duvet, if we have to.”  
  
“It’s perfect,” Chanyeol says, smiling broadly at Baekhyun. Baekhyun laughs again, his cheeks heating up, flushing his face a pretty pink colour.  
  
“I dunno about that, your feet are definitely going to stick over the end of the bed and the walls are so thin we’ll be able to hear my brother snoring,” Baekhyun complains, lifting one hand to rub the back of his neck. Chanyeol shakes his head, crossing the room in a few short strides and stopping in front of the window. Baekhyun’s bedroom is at the back of the house and Chanyeol has a perfect view of the hills that loom over the entire town from here, the sun sparkling off the surface of the lakes in the distance.  
  
“Baekhyunnie, this place is amazing,” Chanyeol says, drawing his gaze away from the green hills outside. “I love it already, it’s so much better than London. London is so- it’s so grey all the time and it’s so flat. With all these hills it’s almost like being back at school.”  
  
“We can go out there tomorrow, if you want.” Baekhyun comes up beside Chanyeol and leans on the windowsill. He lifts one hand to point at the water in the distance. “That lake that you can see, it’s called Derwentwater. We can get take the bus right there and go walking with Mongryong, if you wanted. Or we could actually go onto the lake. There’s little marinas all along it where they let you hire boats.” Baekhyun grins up at him, his smile the broadest Chanyeol has seen it yet, and Chanyeol feels the excitement flutter inside his own chest.  
  
“Can we do all of it?” Chanyeol asks eagerly and Baekhyun laughs again, nodding his head. “We have time, right?”  
  
“Yeah, we have time.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The sunshine is brilliant when Chanyeol is shaken awake the next morning, spilling in through Baekhyun’s bedroom window and washing everything in shades of pale gold. They change out of their pyjamas, Baekhyun chatting idly about where he’s going to take Chanyeol today. Chanyeol has to turn away when Baekhyun strips out of his sleep shirt. His shoulders are broad and strong, the curve of his hips soft, and the sight of all that bare skin makes Chanyeol’s stomach feel funny.  
  
Baekhyun’s mother presses two lots of ham sandwiches into their hands when they walk into the kitchen, carefully wrapped in tinfoil.  
  
“Promise me you’ll be careful, won’t you?” She asks, reaching out to straighten Baekhyun’s bed head. Chanyeol watches as he tries to escape from under her questing hands, nodding obediently all the while. “And you’ll be back before six?”  
  
“We will, Mum. I promise.”  
  
She hands the two of them some bottles of water and a packet of chocolate digestives, which they dutifully pack away into their backpacks, and then shoos them out of the door.  
  
Baekhyun talks incessantly as they walk down his street and leave his cul-de-sac, but Chanyeol is barely listening, too busy craning his neck around to take in their surroundings. All of the streets surrounding Baekhyun’s are narrow like his, dotted with stone cottages fronted by small, neat gardens. The hills loom constantly in the background no matter which direction Chanyeol looks, and he’s so distracted trying to commit every single detail to memory that he nearly walks right into Baekhyun’s back when he stops walking.  
  
“What are we doing?” Chanyeol asks in confusion.  
  
“This is the bus stop, we have to wait for five minutes,” Baekhyun says, taking a swig of his water before stowing it back into his bag. Chanyeol waits a moment for him to elaborate but Baekhyun offers him nothing, just stands and watches idly as cars pass them by.  
  
“Wait for what?” Baekhyun laughs and Chanyeol’s eyebrows crease.  
  
“For the bus, of course,” Baekhyun teases, completely without heat. “It’s not like that magical bus, where you just stick your hand out and it comes. Muggle buses run to a timetable, look,” Baekhyun explains, grabbing hold of Chanyeol’s wrist and pulling him around to the front of the bus stop. The stop itself is only a metal pole with a sign on the top, but Baekhyun points to a list attached around the middle of it. “See the numbers? Those are the bus services and then these underneath are the times that they stop here.”  
  
“Really? That’s pretty cool,” Chanyeol says, craning over Baekhyun’s shoulder to read the timetable. Baekhyun smiles and moves away, turning back around to face the road. They don’t have to wait long before the bus arrives. Baekhyun sticks his arm out and it rolls to a stop beside the pavement, the doors peeling open with a hiss for them to climb aboard. Baekhyun pays the driver for two tickets and Chanyeol watches him curiously as the driver takes his money and a little machine spits out two slips of paper that the driver rips out and hands over to Baekhyun. They make their way to the back of the bus, Chanyeol stumbling into Baekhyun’s back when the vehicle lurches as it pulls back out into the road.  
  
“Can I keep those?” Chanyeol asks once they’re sat down. Baekhyun looks up and Chanyeol points down to the little slips he has in his hand.  
  
“Oh, yeah, of course you can,” Baekhyun says, smiling fondly as he hands both tickets over. “We need them to get the bus back home later, but after that they’re all yours.”  
  
Chanyeol nods and tucks them away carefully in his bag. Baekhyun spends the bus journey pointing out landmarks to Chanyeol; where he went to primary school, the park that he likes to take Mongryong to. Chanyeol listens raptly to everything, soaking up all of the information Baekhyun offers so freely to him like a sponge. Baekhyun has to remind Chanyeol to keep his voice down as he marvels aloud at how cool it is to be in a completely Muggle village like this, but the corners of his mouth are twitching as he does it.  
  
When the bus pulls into its final stop about twenty minutes later, Chanyeol follows Baekhyun down the aisle and jumps off the bus behind him. There are people milling around everywhere, families and couples and kids around their own age, but Chanyeol only has eyes for Baekhyun as his friend takes him by the wrist again and drags them away from the bus shelters up towards the entrance to the national park.  
  
“If we walk up this way it’ll take us up to a fell called Walla Crag. You can see my town from the very top of the hill,” Baekhyun says, releasing Chanyeol’s wrist to grab a map from the tour guide stood by the entrance. Chanyeol can still feel his skin tingling. “Mum and Dad used to bring me and my brother up here all the time when we were little and I always used to stop about half way and complain that my feet were hurting so Dad would carry me.” Chanyeol can imagine it clearly, a pint sized version of his best friend whining and begging to be lifted up. “Oh, here, this is for you,” Baekhyun says, holding the map out for Chanyeol to take. “I thought you could keep it with your ticket.”  
  
Chanyeol’s answering grin is blinding and he reaches out to grab Baekhyun, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “Thank you, Baekhyun,” he coos, laughing and clinging on harder when Baekhyun tries to escape. An elderly couple dressed in full hiking gear give the two of them a disapproving look as they pass to begin the ascent up the fell and Baekhyun takes the opportunity to wriggle out from beneath Chanyeol’s arm.  
  
“Come on, let’s go!” Baekhyun calls and then he sets off up the trail at a jog, leaving Chanyeol to scramble after him.  
  
The walk to the summit takes them the better part of the day. The pair of them talk easily the whole way up, Baekhyun eagerly taking the opportunity to tease Chanyeol when he starts to grow a little breathless about two hours in. The sun beats down on them relentlessly, matting Chanyeol’s hair to his forehead with sweat. Chanyeol can almost see Baekhyun tanning before his eyes, a little patch of freckles that Chanyeol has never seen before springing up over the bridge of his nose as they climb.  
  
Chanyeol is just about to ask if they can stop and rest for five minutes when the forest they’ve been walking through for the last half an hour begins to thin. They crest over the top of the hill and Baekhyun turns around to grin at him. Chanyeol climbs up the last few feet and then he’s gaping, speechless now for an entirely different reason.  
  
From this high up they have a completely unobstructed view of the surrounding countryside, of the trees blanketing the hills on one side and the sparkling, blue water off on the other. There’s greenery as far as Chanyeol can see, nature on all sides, and Chanyeol finds himself suddenly, painfully jealous that Baekhyun got to grow up somewhere as beautiful as this. It couldn’t be any more different from the cold, urban sprawl of London that Chanyeol is used to.  
  
“Where’s your house?” Chanyeol asks suddenly. Baekhyun is stood a little ways further back, his hands on his hips as he watches Chanyeol. He steps forward though and takes hold of Chanyeol’s wrist again to point over at a tiny cluster of buildings in the distance.  
  
“In there somewhere,” Baekhyun says. He’s stood so close that Chanyeol can smell him, can feel the heat of Baekhyun’s body against his own.  
  
Chanyeol raises his hand over his head and waves, delights when he hears Baekhyun’s laugh, loud and obnoxious. He waves, too, flinging his other arm over Chanyeol’s shoulders, as the two of them wave down at Baekhyun’s house.  
  
“Was it worth the climb?” Baekhyun asks, his arm still around Chanyeol as they step down off the cluster of rocks and go to find a place to sit in the shade.  
  
“Completely worth it!” Chanyeol’s voice leaves him in a breathless rush. Baekhyun pulls away to sit down and Chanyeol follows him, stretching his legs out on the grassy ground. “It’s so beautiful and being able to see your house is so cool. I love it here.”  
  
Baekhyun looks up from where he’d been pulling his sandwiches out of his backpack and the expression on his face is one that Chanyeol isn’t sure how to read. “Really? But you’ve only been here a day!” Baekhyun says, the tinfoil dimpling beneath his fingers. “We only get about three sunny days like this a year, the rest of the time it’s cold and rainy and it can be _really_ boring sometimes. I bet there’s loads more to do in London.”  
  
Chanyeol looks at Baekhyun steadily for a moment. Baekhyun’s complaints are only half hearted and even if Chanyeol didn’t already know him so well he’d be able to tell just from today how much Baekhyun really did love his home town, but even still Chanyeol can’t help shaking his head.  
  
“London isn’t as amazing as everyone thinks,” Chanyeol says. Baekhyun raises a doubtful eyebrow but before he can say anything Chanyeol reaches out to take his hand. “Besides, you aren’t in London, you’re here, so that automatically means that the Lake District wins.”  
  
Baekhyun’s entire face flushes, his cheeks flooding with colour that isn’t from the sun. “Idiot,” Baekhyun says when he finally finds his voice again. He pulls his hand away, sliding it out from beneath Chanyeol’s grip, but Chanyeol secretly thinks he looks a little pleased as he begins to unwrap his sandwich. “Let’s eat and then we’ll head back down, okay? We can get off the bus in town and go for ice cream, then walk home, if you want?”  
  
“Sounds amazing,” Chanyeol says, pulling his own bag off his back.  
  
They eat in silence, Chanyeol’s feet knocking against the side of Baekhyun’s thigh. Baekhyun keeps sneaking glances at him from the corner of his eye but neither of them say anything, not until they finish their sandwiches and biscuits and then stand to leave. The walk back down doesn’t take nearly as long but Chanyeol is still grateful when they reach the bottom, the soles of his feet aching from all the walking.  
  
They take the bus to the town centre and then hop off, Baekhyun linking his arm through Chanyeol’s as he guides him through the bustling cobbled streets to a quaint looking ice cream parlour. He laughs himself silly when Chanyeol gets ice cream on the tip of his nose but he doesn’t let go, hanging onto Chanyeol’s side as they wind their way back onto the main street and all the way home.  
  
As much as Chanyeol had loved the fell, it feels good to step through Baekhyun’s front door. They go to sit with Baekhyun’s dad in the living room for a while, Chanyeol excitedly telling him all about where Baekhyun had taken him, until Baekhyun’s mum and brother come and join them in the kitchen for tea.  
  
It’s cramped around the dining table with an extra person. Chanyeol keeps knocking elbows with Baekhyun as they eat and he apologises to Baekhyun’s brother so many times for kicking him under the table that Baekhyun has to stifle his laughter behind a forkful of mashed potato more than once. But it feels right, homely and warm and welcoming in a way that Chanyeol, for all that he knows his parents love him, has never felt before in his entire life.  
  
By the time the two of them curl up in Baekhyun’s tiny bed together later, Chanyeol’s belly and heart are full to bursting. Baekhyun had thrown his bedroom window open and the warm air that breezes through it ruffles his hair up off his forehead as he sleeps. Chanyeol reaches down to push it away. Baekhyun stirs but the touch is gentle enough that he doesn’t wake. Chanyeol sighs and pulls Baekhyun closer and he can’t help but wish he could stay here with Baekhyun and his family forever.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Regretfully, Chanyeol’s wish doesn’t come true and the two short weeks he has to spend with Baekhyun fly by faster than time has any right to.  
  
They get a few more gloriously sunny days and Baekhyun takes Chanyeol back up into the lakes to make the most of them. They climb another few fells, this time with Mongryong in tow, and even hire a boat to take out on the water.  
  
Just like Baekhyun had complained on that first climb though, the rains come soon enough, pounding on Baekhyun’s bedroom window and keeping Chanyeol awake at night. It isn’t too much of a hardship, though, not when Baekhyun wakes, too, and they curl under the covers together, talking about anything and everything until they fall asleep again just as the rising sun attempts to cut through the clouds.  
  
They spend those rainy days cooped up in the house. Baekhyun finally teaches Chanyeol how to use his computer, shows him how he and Jongin can talk to each other _through the screen_. Jongin’s face is a clear as though he were sitting in the room with them and Chanyeol stubbornly focuses on that, tries to quash the squirming feeling in his tummy that feels suspiciously like jealousy at the thought of Baekhyun holed up in his bedroom with Jongin constantly at his fingertips when Chanyeol is hundreds of miles away.  
  
Their last night together rolls around far too quickly. Baekhyun’s bedroom is familiar enough to him now that Chanyeol can pick out every feature as he lies there in the dark, staring up at the ceiling unable to sleep.  
  
“What’s the matter?” Baekhyun asks sleepily. Chanyeol starts.  
  
“How long have you been awake?” Baekhyun had definitely been asleep when Chanyeol had rolled onto his back. Chanyeol knows because he’d been watching him, the way his mouth hung open and his eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks.  
  
“Mmm… about five minutes?” Baekhyun mumbles. He shifts closer to Chanyeol and Chanyeol stiffens, just a little. “Are you too hot? Do you want me to open the window?”  
  
“No, no I’m fine,” Chanyeol says, pushing Baekhyun back down onto the bed with a hand on his chest when he makes to get up. “It’s just- I’m not really ready to go home, that’s all.”  
  
Baekhyun makes a soft noise in the back of his throat and licks his lips.  
  
“Thank you for inviting me up here, Baekhyunnie,” Chanyeol whispers. He’s thanked Baekhyun more times than he can count but every time he means it, really truly means it. “I’ve had a really, really good time here with you, and your family are so nice and I just-“ Chanyeol hesitates and he drops his voice even further before he says, “I’m a bit jealous.”  
  
Baekhyun does sit up then, propping himself up on one elbow so that he can see Chanyeol properly. “Of what?” Baekhyun looks completely perplexed and despite himself Chanyeol smiles fondly. Baekhyun really had no idea how lucky he was.  
  
“Of your family.” It almost feels shameful to say it. Chanyeol’s parents have always given him the very best of everything; the best home and the best education and the best opportunities. They have always provided him with everything he could ever need, but the older he gets the more Chanyeol understands that there are more important things in life. Openness and understanding, kindness. “They’re just- they’ve been so nice to me and so welcoming even though I’m- even though I’m a wizard and that must be weird for them still and I just wish- I wish my parents were more like yours.”  
  
Baekhyun’s eyes are wide but soft, glittering in the light of the street lamp that shines across his face when he shifts again.  
  
“Your parents really aren’t on board with the whole Muggle-born thing, are they?” Baekhyun’s gaze is completely nonjudgemental when he says that, but it still makes Chanyeol squirm uncomfortably. It’s one thing to know it himself, but for _Baekhyun_ to be so aware that Chanyeol’s parents don’t approve of him breaks his heart.  
  
“No,” Chanyeol admits. It feels like a dirty secret and Chanyeol wouldn’t trust anyone but Baekhyun with it. “They’re not into the dark arts or Muggle-born Registers or any of those awful things that happened back in the war, but they’re still- they’re so arrogant.” Chanyeol can feel himself getting upset and he has to take a minute to calm himself. Baekhyun reaches between them to touch his fingers to Chanyeol’s wrist. “There are so few pure-bloods left these days and they’re clinging to it, like that somehow makes us better than other wizards, and _definitely_ better than Muggles but it _doesn’t_ , Baekhyunnie. It’s all so stupid.”  
  
Of all the ways Chanyeol had expected Baekhyun to react, he didn’t imagine Baekhyun would be smiling at him. It’s more than a little disconcerting.  
  
“But you’re not like that,” Baekhyun whispers, his voice the softest Chanyeol thinks he’s ever heard it. “I know you’re not. That’s why the only opinion that matters to me is yours.”  
  
“You’re my best friend.” Chanyeol is proud of the way his voice only wobbles a little bit. Baekhyun’s smile widens.  
  
“And you’re mine. That’s the only thing you need to worry about, okay?” Baekhyun is still holding Chanyeol’s wrist, stroking little circles over Chanyeol’s racing pulse. “Besides, you’ve completely charmed my mum and dad, so no doubt they’ll be inviting you to stay over every summer.”  
  
“Really?” Chanyeol asks in one long breath. Baekhyun squeezes his wrist and nods.  
  
“Yeah, they think you’re a delight,” Baekhyun scoffs. “Personally I still think you’re an idiot, but-“  
  
Chanyeol howls and throws himself on top of Baekhyun. Baekhyun screeches in reply, rolling over onto his back to try and throw Chanyeol’s much larger body off. The pair of them are laughing though, heedless of how late it is, as they try to pin each other down. Chanyeol has got Baekhyun’s wrists pinned up over his head by the time Baekhyun’s brother pounds on the wall between their bedrooms and they separate.  
  
“Let’s go to sleep,” Baekhyun says, breathless. Chanyeol can see the way his cheeks are flushed, even in the dark, and he wonders absently whether he looks just as dishevelled.  
  
“Yeah, alright.” Chanyeol shifts back over to his side of the bed and he doesn’t stiffen this time when Baekhyun flops back down beside him. He pulls the sheets back up to cover them both up and closes his eyes, but Chanyeol can tell by the sound of Baekhyun’s breathing as he lies there in the dark that it’s a while before either of them manages to doze off.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chanyeol isn’t as upset as he could have been by the time his parents arrive to collect him. They actually knock on the door, this time, and while Baekhyun’s parents aren’t able to convince them to come in for a cup of tea, they do exchange only slightly awkward pleasantries while Chanyeol collects the rest of his belongings.  
  
He thanks Baekhyun’s parents again for having him and the long hug that Baekhyun pulls him into, tight enough that Chanyeol can barely breathe, isn’t unexpected but means a lot to Chanyeol all the same.  
  
Chanyeol follows his parents through Baekhyun’s front garden and down the lane, and despite how much he misses Baekhyun and his family already, Chanyeol is smiling. Baekhyun’s family is really nothing like his own, and while Chanyeol knows that neither is really better than the other, there is a simple pleasure in living the way that Muggles do, completely separated from the influence of magic, that even Chanyeol could never have anticipated.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
There’s a subtle shift in their friendship over the next couple of years. Chanyeol isn’t sure whether Baekhyun thinks it, too, but he certainly does. Chanyeol notices it in the way that they still do all the same things together. They still do their homework together in the library, they still sit next to each other in Potions and they still go down to Hogsmeade as often as they can with Sehun and Jongin, the four of them walking through the village in arms, curling up with Butterbeers in the Three Broomsticks.  
  
None of that changes, it’s just that it _feels_ different. Chanyeol sees the way Baekhyun looks at him almost all of the time, regarding him with a soft little smile that Chanyeol likes to think he doesn’t direct towards anyone else. Baekhyun has always been touchy but now it feels like he’s _always_ touching Chanyeol somehow, a hand on his wrist or an arm about his waist.  
  
Chanyeol doesn’t mind it. In fact he likes it, likes the way that Baekhyun’s attention makes his heart beat just a little bit faster in his chest, brings a pleased flush to his cheeks.  
  
He catches Sehun looking at the pair of them, sometimes, when they’re bent a little too close to each other over Baekhyun’s cauldron in Potions. Sehun’s dark eyebrows furrow as he watches Chanyeol lean in behind Baekhyun and take hold of his wrists to help him stir his Draught of Peace the correct way. He doesn’t say anything, though, but Chanyeol never misses the way Sehun’s lips quirk up at the edges when Chanyeol catches him watching them.  
  
Chanyeol tries not to think on it too much, but it’s difficult not to when Baekhyun is in his thoughts all of the time, when it’s all Chanyeol can do not to slide his arms around Baekhyun’s waist and hold him close, to wind his fingers into Baekhyun’s hair and press their mouths together. Except Chanyeol knows that he can’t, knows despite his own wishful thinking that the little touches and smiles are just Baekhyun being Baekhyun.  
  
Baekhyun will curl his arm around Jongin’s elbow as they walk the corridors of the castle between class, after all. Baekhyun will beam like the sun when Jongin laughs at his jokes or invites him to watch him at Quidditch practice. It makes Chanyeol ache, leaves a simmering hurt that cuts right down beneath Chanyeol’s skin and into his bones. But it’s better this way. If Chanyeol accepts that Baekhyun will never be his now, that someone else has already stolen his heart, it will surely hurt all the less than if he waits until later, much later, when he is in far too deep to ever let go.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_“That’s another goal for Hufflepuff to make it ninety points to ten! Slytherin are getting absolutely destroyed, here!”_  
  
Sehun groans next to him but Chanyeol barely hears it over the roar of the crowd as Jongin whirls away from the goal posts, one fist raised triumphantly into the air. They’d managed to convince Baekhyun to sit in the neutral section of the stands, rather than with either of their houses, but from the celebrations around them Chanyeol feels like he may as well be sat amongst the Hufflepuffs.  
  
Baekhyun had leapt from his seat when Jongin had scored and he slumps back down now, beaming at Chanyeol.  
  
“You don’t have to be _so_ pleased,” Chanyeol mumbles, pouting. He isn’t sure whether Baekhyun hears him or not until Baekhyun reaches out and ruffles Chanyeol’s already messy hair.  
  
“Aww come on, don’t be such a spoil sport.” Baekhyun shifts back into his seat and raises his Hufflepuff rosette into the air, waving it wildly. “Even you have to admit that was a great goal.”  
  
Chanyeol grunts in reply but Baekhyun isn’t deterred, not in the slightest.  
  
“Jongin’s such a graceful flier but he’s so purposeful, isn’t he?” Baekhyun doesn’t wait for an answer. “As soon as he gets the Quaffle he’s in on goal and you just _know_ he’s going to score.”  
  
“I wish he’d be a little bit _less_ purposeful, this is starting to get embarrassing,” Sehun puts in from Chanyeol’s other side, pushing a lock of blond hair out of his eyes. “How many goals is that he’s scored against us now, six?”  
  
_“-and Kim’s got the Quaffle again, but surely he can’t score from that angle, not if Lee closes him down- HE SCORES! KIM SCORES! One hundred points to ten and some incredible flying from all of the Hufflepuff chasers there!”_  
  
“Make that seven.” Baekhyun looks so proud it’s almost unbearable. Sehun buries his face in his hands and Chanyeol is almost tempted to join him. It’s bad enough that Slytherin are getting ripped to pieces but having to sit here and listen to Baekhyun wax about how simply wonderful Jongin is, seeing Baekhyun wearing his support for Hufflepuff when all Chanyeol wants is to see him in green and silver, in _his_ colours- it’s torture.  
  
“Who cares, it’s a stupid game anyway,” Chanyeol mumbles childishly. Both Sehun and Baekhyun’s heads whip around to stare at him, aghast.  
  
“Don’t be such a sore loser, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun says. He’s looking at Chanyeol a little weirdly, his eyes narrowed, and it makes Chanyeol squirm uncomfortably in his seat. It doesn’t last long though, because Hufflepuff are on the attack _again_ and Baekhyun jumps from his seat, screaming along with the rest of the stadium.  
  
“What’s wrong with you?” Sehun takes advantage of Baekhyun’s distraction to lean in close. His breath whispers against the shell of Chanyeol’s ear.  
  
“It’s nothing.” Chanyeol keeps his eyes fixed firmly on the game in front of him, on the green and yellow shapes darting through the air like bullets.  
  
“Oh, come on,” Sehun scoffs. “I didn’t think you cared enough about Quidditch to be jealous of Jongin. He _is_ annoyingly talented, I’ll give him that.”  
  
“I am not jealous!” Chanyeol hisses, hunching down in his seat when a girl in the row in front turns around to glare at him.  
  
“Chanyeol, please, you’re about as transparent as Gillywater.”  
  
Chanyeol opens his mouth to reply but he’s drowned out by the commentator again, his voice shrill with excitement.  
  
_“-she’s got it! Kang executes a beautiful swooping dive there and catches the golden snitch! One hundred and fifty points to Hufflepuff and I can guarantee you won’t see a better team performance than that again this year!”_  
  
Baekhyun collapses back into his seat with a shout and Chanyeol watches as the entire Hufflepuff team descend on their Seeker, Jongin almost pulling the girl off her broom as he hugs her.  
  
“That was _wicked_ ,” Baekhyun breathes. “Jonginnie told me that they’re playing better than they have for years but I still didn’t expect a performance like that, did you?” Chanyeol isn’t sure whether Baekhyun is directing that question at him or Sehun, or whether Baekhyun is just thinking out loud. It doesn’t matter either way, because he doesn’t pause long enough for either of them to answer him anyway. “Gryffindor are playing so badly this year, too. Merlin’s beard, we’re going to get absolutely steamrollered when we play them.” Baekhyun laughs, far too delighted at the prospect of Hufflepuff humiliating his own house. Chanyeol can’t stand it any longer.  
  
“That’s great,” he says stiffly, then stands from his seat. “Come on, let’s go.”  
  
The Slytherin end of the stands has already half emptied but the rest of the stadium is still mostly full, everyone staying behind to watch the Hufflepuff team celebrate. Baekhyun looks like he wants to stay too and Chanyeol frowns down at him.  
  
“Baekhyun? Come on.”  
  
Baekhyun sighs but he drags himself up out of his seat and follows Sehun and Chanyeol as they make their way down their aisle of seats towards the stairs. He rests his hands on Chanyeol’s hips as they climb the stairs and normally that would have butterflies springing up in Chanyeol’s chest but now- now the touch just makes him antsy and irritated.  
  
They’re just about to leave the stadium and join the crowd of Slytherins heading back up towards the castle when Chanyeol feels a tug on the back of his robes and turns.  
  
“Let’s wait for Jongin,” Baekhyun says. Chanyeol rolls his eyes and turns around to continue walking.  
  
“He’s probably too busy celebrating with the rest of his team,” Chanyeol snorts. “I’m sure he’ll come and find us when he’s ready.”  
  
Baekhyun doesn’t seem to take the hint, though, because he scurries to catch up with Chanyeol and Sehun, their much longer legs carrying them away from him, and links his arm through Chanyeol’s.  
  
“Nah, come on, it’ll be fine,” Baekhyun insists. He makes like he’s going to turn Chanyeol back around but Chanyeol digs his heels in. The size difference between the two of them makes it impossible for Baekhyun to budge him and Chanyeol knows he’s causing a scene but he can’t help himself.  
  
“I don’t _want_ to.” Chanyeol pulls his arm away from Baekhyun’s and the hurt expression on Baekhyun’s face almost makes him reconsider. “Let’s just go back up to the castle.”  
  
“What is the _matter_ with you?” Baekhyun finally snaps. “Why are you being so arsey?”  
  
“I’m not _being_ arsey,” Chanyeol snaps back. More and more students are pouring out of the stadium and they draw more than a couple of raised eyebrows as people have to walk around them to get past. Chanyeol can feel his face going red but that doesn’t stop him. “I just don’t see why you’re so obsessed with going to see Jongin, all of a sudden. You’re not even a Hufflepuff.”  
  
Baekhyun just stares up at him, his pouty little mouth hanging open just a little and his eyebrows furrowed. Chanyeol wants to apologise, wants to tell Baekhyun that nothing’s the matter, it’s fine, but he doesn’t.  
  
“Because he’s our friend? And he played really fucking well today and I’m happy for him?” Baekhyun casts his gaze over Chanyeol’s shoulder at Sehun and Sehun shrugs. “The only one that’s acting out of character here is you, Chanyeol. Now are you going to stop being a dick and come down to see Jongin with me or not?”  
  
“No,” Chanyeol say stubbornly. “I’m going back to the castle.”  
  
“Fine, do what you want. I’ll see you later.” Baekhyun casts one last look at Sehun and then spins on his heel. Chanyeol watches as he pushes through the crowd of students all coming the other way and then vanishes.  
  
Chanyeol stands there for a minute, still blocking off the pathway, before he sighs heavily and turns away. Sehun is staring at him with his eyebrows raised.  
  
“Don’t start.”  
  
Sehun just shrugs. He looks like he wants to say something but Chanyeol is immensely grateful that he bites his tongue and falls into step beside him as the two of them walk back up towards the school in silence.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chanyeol’s bad mood lasts the rest of the weekend and well into the start of the next week.  
  
Baekhyun tries to talk to him in Charms on Monday morning, but when it quickly becomes apparent that he isn’t going to get much more than one worded answers Baekhyun turns his attention to Sehun instead.  
  
Chanyeol has never been a natural at Charms, not the way Baekhyun is, and he’s so distracted by the jealousy still festering away inside him that by the end of the lesson the pot of vinegar that he was supposed to be turning into wine has done nothing but thicken into a slushy, icy mess. Baekhyun’s, of course, is perfect. Baekhyun must forget that they’re fighting ( _are_ they fighting? Chanyeol doesn’t even know) because he turns around to smile briefly at Chanyeol. Chanyeol’s own smile doesn’t meet his eyes and Baekhyun looks away with a sigh.  
  
By Wednesday Chanyeol is miserable, made all the worse for the fact that he knows all of this is his fault.  
  
Sehun tells him as much at dinner on Thursday evening.  
  
“You could just talk to him, you know,” he says around a forkful of Shepherd’s Pie. “I mean personally I think you’re acting like a prize dickhead, but Baekhyun adores you. I’m sure he’ll understand if you just tell him whatever it is that’s bothering you.”  
  
Chanyeol flicks his peas miserably around his plate.  
  
“Are you even listening to me?”  
  
“Yes.” Chanyeol’s sigh is so put upon that Sehun rolls his eyes.  
  
“Please will you just sort it out?” Sehun asks. “You’re doing my head in, skulking around the place like a kicked puppy. I might even have been able to sympathise with you if it wasn’t for the fact that it was you that started all of this in the first place. Over _Jongin,_ of all things. Honestly Chanyeol.”  
  
“Alright, Sehun,” Chanyeol moans. He knows he’s acting like an idiot but having Sehun spell it out to him is just making Chanyeol feel ten times worse. “I’ll talk to him, I will. I promise.”  
  
“Good.” Sehun sniffs. “Because if I have to listen to Baekhyun whine about how much he misses you any longer I’m going to knock both of your heads together.”  
  
Despite everything that lights a pleased little fire in the pit of Chanyeol’s stomach and it’s with some renewed vigour that he scoops up his peas and stuffs them into his mouth.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chanyeol might know he needs to speak to Baekhyun, to apologise for behaving like such an idiot, but that doesn’t mean he knows how to broach the subject with him. The two of them haven’t been alone together since their argument on Saturday and Chanyeol isn’t sure how best to get Baekhyun to himself.  
  
It ends up being Baekhyun, in the end, that makes the first move.  
  
Chanyeol is sat at the Slytherin table on Friday evening, staring blankly into his jelly and ice cream as he tries to figure out how best he can apologise to Baekhyun, when Sehun suddenly smacks him on the arm.  
  
“Ow, what the hell?” Chanyeol hisses.  
  
“It’s been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes,” Sehun says. Chanyeol lifts his head. ‘It’ turns out to be a little paper bird, so small that it fits easily into Chanyeol’s palm when he holds his hand out. The bird chirps, ruffling it’s delicate little wings indignantly, before unfurling.  
  
_this is stupid. come and meet me in the charms classroom at nine o’clock tonight. alone. B._  
  
As soon as Chanyeol is finished reading the bird bursts into flame, leaving no more evidence than a tiny pile of ash in Chanyeol’s hand.  
  
Chanyeol spins around in his seat, craning to look over at the Gryffindor table. He can just about see Baekhyun from where he’s sitting. He’s surrounded by his friends but Baekhyun doesn’t look up, doesn’t give any indication that he’s seen Chanyeol or that he’d just sent Chanyeol a note made from some of the most beautiful magic Chanyeol has ever seen.  
  
“So, what was that all about?”  
  
Chanyeol turns away from Baekhyun regretfully. Sehun is watching him with an infuriatingly smug smile on his face that makes Chanyeol think Sehun knows very well just who that note was from.  
  
“Nothing,” Chanyeol says vaguely. He picks his spoon back up but his ice cream is starting to melt, pooling at the bottom of his bowl “I er- I think I’m gonna go and talk to Baekhyun tonight. Sort things out, you know.”  
  
Sehun snorts. “Yeah, sounds like a plan.”  
  
He doesn’t say any more on the topic after that, not even when they get back to the common room and Chanyeol spends the next hour checking his watch every five minutes until finally, blessedly, it shows ten to nine.  
  
“I better get going,” Chanyeol says eventually as he stands from his seat by the fire. Sehun looks up from the book he’d been reading with a lazy smile.  
  
“Yeah, you’d better. I won’t bother waiting up.”  
  
Chanyeol opens his mouth to protest but thinks better of it. Sehun has already gone back to his book and Chanyeol doesn’t spare him another glance as he strides across the common room and disappears through the portrait hole.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
By the time Chanyeol arrives on the second floor corridor his palms are sweating and he has to take a moment to wipe them down against the side of his robes before pushing the door open.  
  
Baekhyun is sat on top of one of the desks by the window. His robes hang loosely off his shoulders and he’s unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, the long line of his neck and his collarbones peeking out. Chanyeol swallows softly and clears his throat.  
  
“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun exclaims. “Get in here and close the door behind you.”  
  
Chanyeol shuffles into the classroom awkwardly. Baekhyun pats the space on the table next to him and Chanyeol sighs before hefting himself up. They’ve never been like this with each other before. Chanyeol has certainly never felt so uncomfortable and uncertain around Baekhyun and it kills him to know that he’s the one that’s driven this wedge between them. By flying off the handle over something so stupid, he’s the one that’s caused this.  
  
Before Chanyeol can say anything to try and rectify it, though, Baekhyun reaches into the folds of his robes and pulls out a glass bottle. Chanyeol squints at it and then gasps.  
  
“Is that _Firewhisky_?”  
  
Baekhyun chuckles softly and pulls out two goblets, placing them down on the table between them.  
  
“Where did you get it? Wait, nevermind that, _how_ did you get it? We’re not even of age!”  
  
Baekhyun glances up at Chanyeol with a secret little smile that gives Chanyeol absolutely nothing.  
  
“We’re nearly of age,” Baekhyun says, unscrewing the lid of the bottle. He pours a little into the bottom of both goblets, reseals the bottle, then pushes one of the goblets towards Chanyeol. Chanyeol picks it up gingerly and raises it to his nose. The smell that assaults his sense is sharp and overpowering and it makes Chanyeol’s eyes water.  
  
“Are you serious? It smells awful and we could get into so much trouble.”  
  
“It’ll be fine, Chanyeol, trust me.” Baekhyun smiles and lifts his own goblet, knocking it gently against Chanyeol’s. “Cheers.”  
  
Baekhyun doesn’t wait for Chanyeol to follow. He knocks back his Firewhisky, choking as he swallows it down in one go. “Oh my-“ Baekhyun coughs. He’s laughing, though. Chanyeol can see his shoulders shaking. “Go on. Your go.”  
  
Chanyeol eyes the amber liquid nervously, swilling it once before tipping his head back. True to its name the stuff _burns_ , searing down Chanyeol’s throat. He splutters, slamming the goblet down on the table.  
  
“Baekhyun, seriously-“ Chanyeol coughs, sticking his tongue out and grimacing at the lingering after taste. Baekhyun just smiles and pours Chanyeol another.  
  
They go on like that for what feels like an age, Baekhyun pouring Chanyeol more and more Firewhisky until it starts to slide down his throat easily and Chanyeol feels pleasantly warm inside.  
  
“So, are you going to tell me what that was all about at Quidditch last weekend or what?”  
  
Despite knowing full well this was the reason Baekhyun had wanted to meet him, the question still takes Chanyeol by surprise. He looks away from Baekhyun, staring down at his drink. Chanyeol is sure his ears are burning.  
  
“I’m-“ Chanyeol starts, the words burning more than the whisky had. “I’m sorry. I acted like such a dick, I’m so sorry, Baekhyun. Are you really angry with me?”  
  
“A bit,” Baekhyun admits. “I just want to know why, that’s all. You’ve never kicked off like that before. I mean, I know you don’t like Quidditch but it was still a bit insensitive of me to rub Slytherin getting beat in your face like that. But I don’t understand why you got that upset.”  
  
“It’s not- it wasn’t like that.” Every word is an effort and Chanyeol doesn’t want to say any of them but when he glances up Baekhyun is staring at him earnestly, his cheeks flushed a pretty, dusky pink. “It wasn’t about the Quidditch. I wasn’t angry about Slytherin getting beat, not really.”  
  
“Then why?”  
  
Chanyeol swallows and looks back down. His hands are clasped tightly around his goblet and Chanyeol raises it again, drains it. Baekhyun doesn’t move to refill it this time.  
  
“I-“  
  
There’s a hand on his thigh, warm through Chanyeol’s robes and school pants. Chanyeol feels like he should shy away from the touch but he doesn’t.  
  
“Chanyeol. I know you better than anyone,” Baekhyun’s voice is soft and gentle and it sounds so much closer than before. Chanyeol still doesn’t look up. “You know you can tell me anything.”  
  
“It’s just that- I like you, Baekhyun. I like you _so_ much.” Chanyeol’s heart is lodged somewhere in his throat and his palms are sweating again but now that he’s started it’s like a dam has burst inside him, the words pouring out in a relentless flood. “I know you don’t like me the same way, not as- as more than a best friend, I know you like Jongin and that’s- it’s okay. I mean- it’s _not_ okay, it’s really not okay. If you like Jongin and you- and you wanted to date him, I suppose I’ll have to learn to live with it, but you were talking about him like he was the best, most amazing person but I want you to talk about _me_ like that and-“  
  
Chanyeol is cut off mid rant by a warm pair of lips against his and it takes him a good long moment to register what’s happening. He doesn’t move, too stunned to do anything. Baekhyun pulls back for a moment and Chanyeol just barely notes that there’s a fond smile on his face.  
  
“You are such an idiot,” Baekhyun says and then suddenly Chanyeol has a lap full of him and they’re kissing again.  
  
Chanyeol has been thinking about doing this for a long time, longer than he’s really comfortable admitting even to himself, but he hadn’t really known what to expect. He’s never kissed anyone else before, but kissing Baekhyun is- it’s wet and messy and a little desperate but sweet _Merlin_ it feels good.  
  
Chanyeol must drop his goblet at some point because his hands are on Baekhyun’s hips, holding him as they kiss and kiss and kiss, until Chanyeol’s mouth feels bruised and sore. When Baekhyun finally pulls away Chanyeol whines and tries to follow after him. Baekhyun laughs and Chanyeol clamps his mouth shut, his ears burning.  
  
“I can’t believe you,” Baekhyun says. Chanyeol stares at his mouth, his pretty mouth that Chanyeol wants to taste again and again. “You thought I liked Jongin? Honestly?” Baekhyun laughs again. Chanyeol doesn’t answer but it doesn’t seem like Baekhyun expects one. “Sehun told me he thought you were jealous and you know what I told him? I told him he was being ridiculous.”  
  
“You spoke to Sehun?” Chanyeol asks weakly. That explained all of the weird comments Sehun had been making, the strange looks. Chanyeol was going to kill him.  
  
“Yeah and I’m glad I did,” Baekhyun’s eyes drop down to his mouth and Chanyeol licks his lips. “Because I’ve wanted to kiss you for such a long time but I was never quite sure if you would kiss me back. But then when Sehun said you were jealous I thought maybe you liked me the same way that I like you. As more than a best friend.”  
  
The look that Baekhyun gives him is heated and Chanyeol leans up to kiss Baekhyun again. Their noses bump together but Baekhyun’s mouth is warm and wet and wonderful and everything Chanyeol has ever wanted. They kiss until Chanyeol starts to go lightheaded and he pulls away regretfully.  
  
He’s just about to open his mouth to speak again, to ask Baekhyun what this means, when they hear footsteps in the corridor outside. Chanyeol looks up at Baekhyun with wide, scared eyes but Baekhyun just smiles and climbs out of his lap.  
  
“We better go, it must be nearly ten.” Baekhyun grabs Chanyeol’s goblet from the floor and then tucks it and the half empty bottle of Firewhisky back under his robes. His cheeks are flaming and he’s a little unsteady on his feet and Chanyeol wonders absently whether he looks as much of a mess as Baekhyun does. He finds his answer when he stands from the desk and the whole classroom spins.  
  
“You okay?” Baekhyun asks, one hand flat against the small of Chanyeol’s back. Chanyeol nods and Baekhyun leans up, going onto his tiptoes to press a fierce kiss to Chanyeol’s mouth. Chanyeol never wants it to end but soon enough the two of them part and make their way out into the corridor.  
  
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Baekhyun says softly, offering Chanyeol one last smile, his dark eyes sparkling. Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever looked more beautiful.  
  
“Yeah, see you in the morning.”  
  
They part ways, Baekhyun heading up to the Gryffindor tower and Chanyeol down to the dungeons. Chanyeol doesn’t meet anyone on his way back and the common room, when he finally arrives, is empty, save for a few third year students settled around the fire. They barely spare Chanyeol a glance when he steps through the portrait hole and it allows him to head straight up to his dormitory without being questioned.  
  
The curtains are drawn around Sehun’s bed and Chanyeol breaths a sigh of relief. He strips down into his pyjamas and climbs into bed, pulling the curtains shut tight and crawling under the sheets. Chanyeol stares up at the emerald canopy above his bed, the taste of Baekhyun’s lips still haunting his mouth, and it’s a long, long time before he manages to fall asleep.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
When Chanyeol wakes in the morning, it feels like a herd of Hippogriffs have stampeded across his head.  
  
He can hear the other boys shuffling around the dormitory and they aren’t being loud, as such, not any louder than usual, anyway, but it still makes Chanyeol’s head throb. He sits up slowly, the covers pooling around his waist, and touches a hand to his lips. If Chanyeol didn’t know better he’d be half tempted to think last night was all a dream, but he can still taste Baekhyun on his lips, can still feel the warm weight of Baekhyun’s body in his lap. Then there’s the headache.  
  
Someone bangs on one of the posters of his bed and Chanyeol nearly leaps out of his skin.  
  
“Come on, lazy bones, or you’re gonna miss breakfast,” Sehun calls. Chanyeol can hear the other boys trooping out of the dormitory and he shoves the sheets down over his legs. “I’ll meet you in the Great Hall, alright?”  
  
Sehun doesn’t wait for a reply, his footsteps crossing the room and then fading away. Chanyeol groans and pushes his curtains aside, swinging his feet down out of the bed. The stone floor is cold against his bare feet and Chanyeol hisses as he stands and begins to strip out of his pyjamas. Today was going to be a long day.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Chanyeol somehow manages to make it downstairs in time for breakfast.  
  
He definitely looks a little worse for wear and all of that Firewhisky has left him feeling more than a little fragile, but he slides into the empty seat opposite Sehun at the Slytherin table all the same. Sehun looks up when he does and he watches with shrewd eyes as Chanyeol takes a couple of pieces of toast from the platter in the middle of the table and begins to butter them.  
  
He doesn’t say anything for a long time. Chanyeol slowly spreads strawberry jam on his toast and he thinks Sehun is going to let him get away with it, but as soon as he takes a bite of his toast Sehun speaks up.  
  
“So, have you and Baekhyun kissed and made up then?”  
  
Chanyeol startles so badly that he almost chokes, his toast going down his windpipe the wrong way around. Sehun laughs, delighted.  
  
“How did you know?” Chanyeol hisses. He drops his toast to his plate and he can feel his entire face flooding with colour.  
  
Sehun laughs again. Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever heard Sehun sound so positively gleeful about anything in his entire life.  
  
“Chanyeol, please, I’m not just a pretty face,” Sehun starts. “Do you honestly think I couldn’t tell that you liked Baekhyun? What do you take me for, a wide eyed first year?”  
  
Chanyeol blanches. He knows that he and Baekhyun are obviously close but he hadn’t thought- he didn’t think he was so _obvious._  
  
“But I never said-“  
  
“You didn’t have to _say_ , Chanyeol,” Sehun scoffs. “I have eyes. Although sometimes I wish I didn’t. Do you know how painful it’s been for me, having to watch the two of you making cow eyes at each other for the past year?”  
  
“We do not make cow eyes!” Chanyeol almost shouts. A couple of their classmates glance at them from further down the table and Chanyeol hunches his shoulders. He can feel his ears burning and he looks down at his toast so he doesn’t have to watch Sehun rolling his eyes.  
  
“You _definitely_ do. I’m sure you were completely oblivious to it in that strange way that you have, but Baekhyun is just as bad, if not worse.” Sehun kicks him under the table. “And you thought he liked Jongin. Honestly.”  
  
Sehun makes it all sound so simple, makes it sound as though Chanyeol has been blind all this time. But maybe he has, if he couldn’t see what was right in front of him. Still, last night had happened, Baekhyun had really climbed into his lap and kissed Chanyeol until he couldn’t think so maybe Chanyeol is okay with having looked like a complete idiot.  
  
“You did, didn’t you?” Sehun asks when Chanyeol doesn’t speak. “The two of you kissed, didn’t you? There’s no other explanation for that smile.”  
  
Chanyeol can still feel his the heat in his cheeks, but he doesn’t mind it so much.  
  
“I don’t kiss and tell,” Chanyeol answers and he’s proud of himself when his voice doesn’t tremble.  
  
“Fine, be like that. I’m sure Baekhyun will be more than happy to fill me in with all the gory details in Herbology later.” Sehun leers at him from across the table and Chanyeol returns his kick. “Come on, hurry up and finish your toast. Ancient Runes is in ten minutes and we’ll end up with extra homework if we’re late.”  
  
Chanyeol nods and picks his toast back up reluctantly. It’s gone a little cold but Chanyeol bites into it anyway. He was going to need something to line his stomach if he had any chance of surviving today.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Baekhyun, as it turns out, _is_ happy to tell Sehun every excruciating detail of the kiss he and Chanyeol had shared. He’s halfway through describing the pretty way that Chanyeol blushes when he kisses, Sehun and Jongin crowding in close to listen with delight, when Professor Longbottom walks into the greenhouse and holds an old, gnarled hand up for some quiet. Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever been so glad to see a teacher in his life, though he’s willing to revise that statement when the Snargaluff that he has them working on wraps one of its vines around Chanyeol’s ankle and drags him to the floor. The impact _hurts_ and Jongin has to beat the stump back with a pair of secateurs, but Chanyeol is still half willing to bet that being attacked by a plant is less mortifying than listening to Baekhyun tell their friends all about the way the inside of Chanyeol’s mouth tastes.  
  
Still, he likes it in a way, as mortifying as it is. Especially when Baekhyun can’t stop looking at him from across their workbench as he pops open the Snargaluff pods that the four of them manage to collect. The looks leave Chanyeol feeling warm and satisfied and make all of the amused looks Jongin and Sehun keep shooting him worth it.  
  
The next couple of months are very much the same. In fact, not much really changes between the four of them at all. They still hang out together in their free periods, Chanyeol still pretends to be interested in Quidditch. They all still sit together whenever they share a lesson. It’s as if nothing is different, except now Baekhyun will hold Chanyeol’s hand beneath the table in Potions, and he’ll lean across to kiss Chanyeol on the cheek or the forehead or, if he’s feeling particularly daring, the mouth, in front of Sehun and Jongin, just to hear Chanyeol screech.  
  
If the two of them sneak off to spend time on their own, that’s nothing new, either. Chanyeol and Baekhyun have always spent time together by themselves, just the two of them, it’s just that now they spend less time doing homework in the library and more time kissing each other senseless in a quiet corner of the Quad or with their hands down each others’ pants in the boys’ toilets. Chanyeol had never realised how few places there were in the castle to go for a little privacy but they manage to make it work, even if Chanyeol does blush scarlet when he stumbles back into the Slytherin common room late one Saturday evening. Baekhyun had tried to straighten Chanyeol’s hair before the two of them had left the Owlery but it’s obvious from the way Sehun looks him up and down that he’s still more than a little dishevelled.  
  
“You’ve got owl shit on your shoulder,” Sehun says casually. Chanyeol opens his mouth to try and excuse it but Sehun is quicker, his mouth stretching into a sly smirk. “And a lovebite right there.” Sehun presses a long, slender finger to the hollow of his own neck, bared by his t-shirt, and Chanyeol balks.  
  
He can hear the sound of Sehun’s laughter all the way down the hallway and it still rings in his ears when Chanyeol slams the dormitory door shut.  
  
But despite all of the teasing he and Baekhyun endure, Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever been happier in his entire life. Baekhyun will smile at him sometimes, the corners of his mouth upturned, his eyes sparkling with mischief, and Chanyeol finds himself breathless with the realisation that Baekhyun is _his_. This is something that he’s wanted for longer than he’s probably even known, but being together with Baekhyun like this, as boyfriends, makes Chanyeol feel unbelievably, indescribably happy.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Incoming!”  
  
Chanyeol whips his head up from his cereal at Sehun’s shout and he only narrowly manages to duck his head as Strix swoops over his head. Jongin lets out a startled little yelp as her wing clips the top of his head and Baekhyun’s hand squeezes Chanyeol’s as he laughs.  
  
Baekhyun has taken to sitting with Chanyeol and Sehun at the Slytherin table for breakfast more often than not. He’d first done it when they’d all returned back to school after Christmas, nonchalantly making a place for himself by Chanyeol’s side. Nobody had said anything, but Sehun had barely lasted a week before he’d begged Jongin to join them, to save him from third wheeling. Sehun had been smiling when he’d asked so Chanyeol knows he doesn’t really mind, but it had been satisfying all the same when Baekhyun had elbowed Sehun hard in the stomach.  
  
It’s been months since then and Chanyeol can only wonder why they hadn’t all done this sooner.  
  
Strix lands in an empty space next to a plate of kippers and hops across the table to Chanyeol, holding her leg out for him to untie the letter attached.  
  
“Thank you,” Chanyeol says once he’s pulled it off. Strix hoots happily and then moves over to Baekhyun, clacking her beak at him. Baekhyun dips his head obediently and she begins to preen his hair. She’s so big now but she still croons like a chick when Baekhyun returns the favour, stroking his fingers down over her back. Chanyeol’s heart tightens in his chest and it’s a real effort to pull his eyes away.  
  
He knows without opening it that the letter is from home. The last letter Chanyeol had received from his parents had been months ago, reminding him that just because N.E.W.Ts were still a year away didn’t mean this year’s exams weren’t important. Chanyeol had sent a slightly terse letter back in reply, thanking them for the reminder, and they haven’t spoken since.  
  
The older he gets, the less patience Chanyeol finds he has for the unnecessary amount of pressure his parents put on him. Still, they _are_ his parents, and some tiny, childish part of Chanyeol does still worry about whether he’ll ever be able to make them proud.  
  
He breaks the seal on the parchment and unfurls the letter. It isn’t what Chanyeol had expected, but it still makes him roll his eyes.  
  
“What is it?” Jongin asks from his place next to Sehun. The two of them had been pouring over a copy of Which Broomstick? before Strix arrived and it’s still propped open against a jug of pumpkin juice. It slides down slightly and Jongin pushes it back into place without looking away from Chanyeol’s face.  
  
“It’s from Mother,” Chanyeol sighs. Baekhyun looks up too, though it earns him a disapproving hoot from Strix. “She’s managed to get me a work placement at the Ministry this summer. Department of Magical Law Enforcement,” Chanyeol says glumly.  
  
“Oh. I’m sorry, mate,” Jongin says. Sehun nods alongside him.  
  
“It’s bound to be in the Improper Use of Magic Office, as well,” Chanyeol grumbles. He knows he’s acting like a bit of a brat but he’s lost count of the amount of times he’s told his parents that he doesn’t want to work at the Ministry and it’s still as though every utterance falls on deaf ears. “I can’t believe I’m going to be spending the summer working at the Ministry with my mother.”  
  
“It’s not for the whole summer, though, is it?” Baekhyun asks.  
  
“No.” Chanyeol glances back down at the letter. “Just for three weeks, but _still_.”  
  
“So you’ll still be coming to mine then?” When Chanyeol nods Baekhyun’s smile turns sly. “Good because I was hoping we could-“ he waggles his eyebrows and sticks his tongue out and it’s ridiculous, it’s _so_ ridiculous, but Chanyeol’s face still flames. It’s not as though Chanyeol hasn’t thought about sleeping with Baekhyun, because he certainly has. It’s something that Chanyeol knows he wants, but it’s nice, in a way, to get that confirmation that Baekhyun wants it as well.  
  
“You dirty dogs!” Sehun exclaims from across the table. Baekhyun laughs loudly enough that Strix beats her wings, almost knocking the jug of pumpkin juice flying until Jongin leaps across the table to save it. Chanyeol’s face still feels hot but the warmth curling in his belly is even hotter. He tosses the letter from his mother onto the table and shoves it to the back of his mind. Summer was still months away and approaching exams or no, Chanyeol fully intends to enjoy the rest of their sixth year with his friends.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
His placement at the Ministry is every little bit as tedious as Chanyeol expects it to be.  
  
Chanyeol does end up in the Improper Use of Magic office, just like he’d predicted, and his mother is _thrilled_ , of course, just at the mere prospect of her son coming to work at the Ministry like his parents. But Chanyeol spends the entire three weeks bored out of his mind, sat at a desk with a pile of unimportant paperwork in front of him, wondering what Baekhyun is doing, wondering what the two of them could be doing together if it weren’t for the fact that time seems to slow right down to a stop as soon as Chanyeol sits down at his borrowed desk.  
  
Still, if there’s one thing that Chanyeol takes from his three week stint at the Ministry, it is the iron clad determination that sitting behind a desk and passing judgement on people, filling out meaningless forms and dishing out pointless punishments is _not_ the way that he’s going to spend the rest of his life. This might be the future his parents want for him, an easy path to a comfortable life, but Chanyeol is old enough now to know that what his parents want doesn’t have to define his entire world.  
  
Chanyeol is going to do something that matters.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
When Chanyeol finally arrives at Baekhyun’s house three weeks later, at the start of the second week of August, the heat is suffocating and the flowers in Baekhyun’s front garden are wilting beneath it. Chanyeol hitches his bag up onto his back and knocks on the front door. On cue, Mongryong begins to bark and Chanyeol smiles fondly. Over the last few years this has become a second home to Chanyeol, one that he cherishes almost more than his own. Everything is so familiar, the sound of the dog barking and the fresh, clean air, that Chanyeol’s heart feels heavy beneath the weight of his fondness.  
  
It isn’t long before Baekhyun flings the door open and Chanyeol is barely given a chance to admire how good he looks in a loose tank top that bares more skin than Chanyeol is sure is decent at this time of day before Baekhyun is leaping into his arms.  
  
Chanyeol laughs, clutching Baekhyun in turn, and then Baekhyun is kissing him, right there on the door step. His mouth is warm and wet and familiar and Chanyeol melts into it, his fingers curling into the hair at the base of Baekhyun’s neck.  
  
“It’s been so _long_ ,” Baekhyun whines when he finally pulls away. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”  
  
“It’s not even been a month,” Chanyeol says but he’s felt it too, felt the time stretching between them like its been twice that. But he’s here now, finally, and the start of seventh year feels like an age away when the balmy remnants of summer are spread out before them like this.  
  
“Too long.” Baekhyun takes hold of Chanyeol by the wrist and drags him across the threshold, shutting the door behind him. Chanyeol toes off his shoes and leaves them in the hallway. So little has changed since Chanyeol’s first visit here but Chanyeol loves Baekhyun’s home all the more for it. It may not be the crackle of spells, as familiar to Chanyeol as breathing, that surround them here, but Baekhyun’s home still holds a brand of magic all of its own.  
  
Baekhyun calls out to his parents that Chanyeol is here and they greet Chanyeol as warmly as they ever have. They go out into the back garden and drink lemonade under the sun. Baekhyun charms the pitcher to refill their glasses when they’re empty and his parents gasp with such innocent delight each and every time that it makes Chanyeol ache. Mongryong lies under the table in the shade at their feet and Baekhyun and Chanyeol sit so close together that their arms brush any time either of them moves. It’s nothing new, not really, and neither of Baekhyun’s parents says anything, but Chanyeol can tell by the way they look at the two of them that they know. The thought of it isn’t as terrifying as Chanyeol had imagined it would be.  
  
“Did you tell your parents about us?” Chanyeol asks later, when he and Baekhyun are in bed. Baekhyun’s little bedroom gathers heat like a greenhouse and by the evening it’s almost unbearable. Baekhyun had thrown open his window and set up a little electric fan on the end of his desk to try and alleviate the worst of it. Chanyeol had been enthralled for a solid five minutes but it does help a little.  
  
“Yeah,” Baekhyun says. He stands from the bed and strips out of the sky blue football shorts he’s wearing, then collapses back down next to Chanyeol in nothing but his underwear. There is a scattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose and Baekhyun laughs softly when Chanyeol lifts his thumb to trace over them.  
  
“They don’t mind?” Chanyeol asks. He can already tell that they don’t but he still needs the confirmation from Baekhyun.  
  
“Nah, of course they don’t. They love you,” Baekhyun says with a grin. “Honestly, I think they were just surprised it took us so long.”  
  
Chanyeol snorts but that admission delights him right down to the pit of his stomach. He loves Baekhyun’s parents, too, as though they were his own family. Still, he can’t help but wonder how his own parents would react. Chanyeol’s sure they wouldn’t be as happy.  
  
“What’s the matter?” Baekhyun asks when Chanyeol doesn’t speak again for a while. He props himself up on one elbow and Chanyeol sighs as he watches him. “You’re not annoyed that I told them are you? I tell my mum and dad everything, but even if I hadn’t they would have figured-“  
  
“I’m not annoyed,” Chanyeol interrupts. “Honestly, I’m not. I’m just- should I tell my parents?”  
  
Baekhyun raises both of his eyebrows. “Do you want to?”  
  
“Do you want me to?”  
  
Baekhyun laughs and sinks back down, throwing an arm over his forehead as he rolls onto his back. Chanyeol can see the way sweat has collected in the dip of his neck, his collarbones, making his skin gleam in the low light spilling in from outside.  
  
“It doesn’t matter to me either way, they’re your parents.” Baekhyun smiles up at him but his tone is serious. “I guess they probably wouldn’t approve, would they?” Chanyeol shakes his head and reaches out to stroke the bare skin of Baekhyun’s bicep. It’s clammy to the touch. “Then if you want to keep this from them until you’re ready that’s fine with me. You should only tell them when you think it’s right.”  
  
“Okay,” Chanyeol says. “You’re right.”  
  
“I’m always right,” Baekhyun teases, yelping like a puppy when Chanyeol pinches his skin. “Don’t assault me just because the truth hurts.”  
  
Chanyeol leans half over Baekhyun and nuzzles his nose against his forehead. It’s too hot to be touching each other like this but Chanyeol is sure the payoff is worth it. “What if I promise to kiss it better?”  
  
Baekhyun’s gaze darkens and he reaches up to curl his fingers into the front of Chanyeol’s t-shirt, to pull him down closer. “Well if that’s the case…” Baekhyun tips his head back and Chanyeol duly obliges, closing his mouth over Baekhyun’s.  
  
It’s a good long while before either of them gets any sleep.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The long, hot days of summer crawl by and Chanyeol can feel himself starting to fall in love with Baekhyun with every moment that passes.  
  
They do very little, this summer, but the laziness of it feels perfect in its own way. On the rare occasions that they venture away from the house, they meander into town and go for ice creams that melt faster than they can eat them, streaking down their fingers and leaving a sticky trail that Chanyeol wants to lick away. The heat that Chanyeol can see in Baekhyun’s eyes every time the other boy looks at him tells Chanyeol that he feels the same.  
  
Chanyeol has probably thought about sleeping with Baekhyun more in the week and a bit that he’s been at Baekhyun’s house than he has in the months that they’ve been together. It’s beginning to border on a little obsessive, but Chanyeol can hardly help himself. They’ve messed around, kisses turning to more whenever they get a moment alone together, Baekhyun’s hand down Chanyeol’s pants and Chanyeol’s mouth around Baekhyun’s dick. It’s just that they’ve never really had the opportunity to take it any further.  
  
So when Baekhyun’s parents tell him that they’ll be away for the day, at some work event or another, and they won’t be back until late that evening, Chanyeol knows exactly what the look that Baekhyun throws him when his parents aren’t looking means.  
  
It can’t have even been half an hour since the car pulled away from the house, not that Chanyeol has been counting, before Baekhyun slides his fingers through Chanyeol’s and drags him upstairs. The stairs creak beneath Chanyeol’s feet and Chanyeol raises an eyebrow when Baekhyun closes his bedroom door and then pulls his cauldron out from his trunk and leans it up against it.  
  
“Just in case,” Baekhyun says with a grin.  
  
“Oh.” Chanyeol’s mouth is suddenly dry and it’s all he can do to croak out that single syllable.  
  
Baekhyun’s grin softens into a smile and he crosses his bedroom in three steps, takes both of Chanyeol’s hands in his before pushing him down onto the bed. Chanyeol lands with a thump and Baekhyun follows quickly, climbing on top of Chanyeol’s body and pressing their mouths together.  
  
They’ve kissed more times than Chanyeol can count but this kiss somehow feels different, more deliberate, than all of those others. This feels like it’s leading somewhere and Chanyeol relents easily beneath it, tipping his head back and opening his mouth for Baekhyun’s tongue.  
  
Chanyeol brings his hands up to Baekhyun’s hips and he clutches them, his fingers brushing against clammy skin where Baekhyun’s t-shirt rides up. The way that Baekhyun moans in response and presses closer stokes a fire in the pit of Chanyeol’s stomach. Chanyeol lifts his hips in turn and when he feels Baekhyun’s cock pressed against his, hard and hot through their clothes, it’s his turn to gasp.  
  
“Shit,” Chanyeol says, breathless. Baekhyun’s lips are swollen when he pulls back and Chanyeol’s hands stutter, clenching into fists.  
  
“I know.” Baekhyun dips down to kiss Chanyeol again, and again, short, sharp butterfly kisses that trail from his mouth to his jaw to the dip of his neck. He looks at Chanyeol deliberately when he takes hold of the hem of his t-shirt. Chanyeol nods once and then Baekhyun is pulling it up and off, throwing it without a care over the side of the bed. Chanyeol moves to do the same, but his hands are shaking and Baekhyun’s t-shirt gets caught around his neck when Chanyeol tries to pull it off. They pull apart, laughing.  
  
“You alright?” Baekhyun asks. His cheeks are flushed and his hair is awry. Chanyeol thinks he looks incredible.  
  
“Yeah, I’m- I’m okay. Just a bit nervous, you know?” Chanyeol admits. It should be embarrassing, but Chanyeol isn’t ashamed to admit to his emotions, not in front of Baekhyun.  
  
“Me too,” Baekhyun says. He leans in to press his forehead against Chanyeol’s and then nuzzles into his hair. Chanyeol closes his eyes for a moment and even with just that tiny little contact he feels himself start to relax. “You do want to though, don’t you? I’m not rushing-“  
  
“No!“ Baekhyun tenses a fraction and Chanyeol hurries to correct himself. “I mean yes, yes, I want to. Merlin, Baekhyun, of course I want to. I’ve wanted to do this for _ages_.”  
  
Baekhyun huffs a laugh into Chanyeol’s hair and then kisses him again, licking his way into Chanyeol’s mouth. He traces his hands over Chanyeol’s skinny chest and Chanyeol squirms beneath each touch, unable to help himself when Baekhyun flicks those long, beautiful fingers of his over Chanyeol’s nipples or strokes over the dip of his belly button.  
  
Deft fingers make short work of the button on his jeans and Chanyeol lifts his hips to help Baekhyun slide them down. Baekhyun moves back, pulling away from Chanyeol’s mouth, and Chanyeol lets out a disgruntled little whine at the loss.  
  
“Gryffindor red,” Baekhyun laughs as he throws Chanyeol’s pants aside to join their t-shirts on the floor.  
  
“What?” Chanyeol asks, propping himself up on shaking elbows to get closer to Baekhyun. He feels dazed and stupid.  
  
“Your underwear.”  
  
“Oh.” Chanyeol glances down and sure enough the boxer briefs he’s wearing are scarlet red. He hadn’t even thought about it. “That wasn’t intentional.”  
  
Baekhyun laughs again. “Liar,” he teases, lifting one hand to stroke his knuckles over the obvious bulge in the front of Chanyeol’s underwear. “This is your way of trying to seduce me, isn’t it? Wearing my House colours.”  
  
Baekhyun’s eyes are darker than Chanyeol thinks he’s ever seen them and even as he gasps and pushes up into Baekhyun’s touch he’s sure the other boy is only half joking.  
  
“I’ve already seduced you, haven’t I?” Chanyeol asks and in a moment of boldness he sits up and reaches for Baekhyun’s pants, pushing them down over the curve of his hips. Baekhyun keens and bites his lips, his touch faltering.  
  
“Yeah, yeah you’ve got me.”  
  
Baekhyun has to manoeuvre himself awkwardly to get his pants down and Chanyeol can’t help touching him as he kicks them from around his ankles. Once they’re off Baekhyun is back on him, kissing Chanyeol fiercely even as he continues to palm him through his underwear.  
  
“ _Baekhyun_ ,” Chanyeol whines. He can feel himself getting riled up, too riled up if he wants this to last.  
  
“Yeah, alright,” Baekhyun says and at least he looks just as affected by all of this as Chanyeol feels. “How do you wanna do this?”  
  
The question makes Chanyeol’s throat dry up. He’s thought about it, fantasised about it, but now they’re actually going to do it, and Chanyeol can only half believe his luck.  
  
“I want you to fuck me,” Chanyeol says, refusing to break eye contact even when he feels his ears burning. “Please, Baekhyun.”  
  
Baekhyun nods, swallowing hard. He pulls away from Chanyeol then and Chanyeol watches with eyes blown almost black as Baekhyun rummages in the drawer by his bed. He returns with a tube of lubricant and a condom and Chanyeol can’t help the laugh that rattles out of his throat.  
  
“How long have you had all that stuff?”  
  
“I went into town at the start of the holidays to get everything,” Baekhyun says. “I wasn’t joking, you know, when I asked if you were still staying over this summer. I want you so much, Chanyeol, I have for _ages_ , so I wanted to make sure I was prepared when we finally got a chance to do this.”  
  
Chanyeol nods. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind but Baekhyun has got everything they need.  
  
Chanyeol watches as Baekhyun shimmies out of his underwear and then he slips his hands beneath Chanyeol’s, sliding them down his long legs. He slicks his fingers (three, Chanyeol notes with a little apprehension) with the lube and then settles himself between Chanyeol’s legs. His touch is gentle as he eases Chanyeol’s thighs apart.  
  
“Just tell me if it hurts, okay?” Baekhyun says, stroking Chanyeol’s knee softly as he drops his other hand down between Chanyeol’s legs. He touches one finger to Chanyeol’s entrance but he doesn’t push in, not yet. “I know what to do but- reading about this on the internet is one thing but actually doing it-“  
  
“You read about it on the internet?” Chanyeol asks, tensing just a little at the first prod of Baekhyun’s finger.  
  
“Of course I did. I wanted our first time to be good.”  
  
If that doesn’t render Chanyeol completely speechless then the way Baekhyun slowly edges his finger inside him certainly does. It feels weird, really weird, but it doesn’t hurt like Chanyeol had expected it to. Baekhyun smiles up at him and Chanyeol breathes out slowly as he eases all the way in.  
  
“How does that feel? Is it okay?”  
  
Chanyeol nods, lowering himself down from his elbows to lie flat across the bed. “Yeah, it’s okay,” Chanyeol says but it’s more than okay, especially when Baekhyun slowly drags his finger back and then down again. “Shit Baekhyun-“  
  
“Yeah?” Baekhyun’s voice is deeper than Chanyeol has ever heard it and it makes his entire body shudder. “You ready for another?”  
  
“Please.”  
  
Baekhyun obliges, stroking his entire palm down Chanyeol’s thigh and over his hip as he slides a second finger inside him. It stings just a little but that eases quickly and Chanyeol squirms beneath Baekhyun as he works him open, scissoring his fingers.  
  
Baekhyun leans down over Chanyeol’s body to kiss him and they both laugh when Baekhyun misses his mouth, knocking their noses together.  
  
“You’re so good, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun coos. “You look amazing.”  
  
Chanyeol flushes with pleasure and lifts his hips, squeezing tight around Baekhyun’s fingers.  
  
The third finger hurts but Baekhyun eases him into it, stopping when he’s only in to the first knuckle to give Chanyeol a chance to adjust. His erection has wilted just a little but Baekhyun takes Chanyeol into his other hand and works him lightly, brushing his thumb over the head until Chanyeol relaxes.  
  
“Okay?” He asks and Chanyeol nods, his fringe stuck to his forehead with sweat.  
  
Baekhyun works him deeper, curling his fingers, and it’s only when Chanyeol spreads his legs a little further, to give Baekhyun more room to press into him, that he feels it.  
  
“ _Fuck._ ” Baekhyun stops dead, his eyes wide, but Chanyeol shakes his head. “Baekhyun, please- do it again.”  
  
Baekhyun’s brow is knitted but he crooks his fingers and Chanyeol moans as he back bows up off the bed.  
  
“Is that nice?” Chanyeol has his eyes closed but he can hear the grin in Baekhyun’s voice, can hear how pleased he is with himself.  
  
“ _Yes_. It feels incredible,” Chanyeol gasps as Baekhyun does it again and again, pressing his fingers against that spot inside him. “I’m ready- Baekhyun, please, I want you inside me.”  
  
It’s Baekhyun that swears this time but he pulls away from Chanyeol, carefully drawing his fingers out of Chanyeol’s body. Chanyeol can hear him shifting around on the bed and he lifts his head weakly, opening his eyes to watch Baekhyun as he slicks himself with lube and then tears open the condom wrapper. His cock is already leaking against his belly and Chanyeol feels desperate and impatient with desire as Baekhyun rolls the condom down over himself.  
  
“Okay?” Baekhyun asks again as he positions himself between Chanyeol’s legs. Chanyeol nods and tries to pull him closer.  
  
“Don’t make me beg, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol whines. Baekhyun’s mouth quirks up into a half smile.  
  
Chanyeol had felt full on three fingers but that was nothing compared to the way Baekhyun’s cock feels as it slides into him. Even with all of that preparation it’s a lot and Chanyeol can’t help the way he tenses.  
  
“Hey, are you alright?” Baekhyun asks. He’s stopped moving and he can barely even be in an inch but Chanyeol feels like he’s being split in two.  
  
“I’m fine,” Chanyeol insists. Baekhyun is trembling above him, his entire body flushed pink, but he scoffs and shakes his head all the same.  
  
“You’re not fine,” he says. Chanyeol is about to protest, to reassure Baekhyun that he can handle it, but then Baekhyun is reaching between their bodies and it’s only then that Chanyeol realises he’s gone soft again with the pain. “Relax,” Baekhyun soothes. He curls his fingers around the head of Chanyeol’s cock and begins to jack him off, twisting his wrist on the upstroke just the way he knows Chanyeol likes it. Chanyeol keens, pushing up into Baekhyun’s grip. The distraction alleviates the worst of the discomfort and Baekhyun manages to slide the rest of the way in with less resistance.  
  
“Oh my god,” Baekhyun moans, his hand faltering as he bottoms out. Chanyeol still feels almost impossibly full but it doesn’t hurt anymore, not like it did.  
  
“You can move,” Chanyeol says. Baekhyun gives him a look but it doesn’t have any of the effect Baekhyun probably intended it to, not when Baekhyun’s eyelids are fluttering with pleasure. “I want you to, Baekhyunnie. I’m okay, I’m-“  
  
Baekhyun shifts, drawing back and then rolling his hips. They both gasp in unison.  
  
“You feel so fucking good,” Baekhyun whines and despite himself Chanyeol laughs. Baekhyun releases his cock and then plants both palms on the bed, resting his weight on them as he rocks into Chanyeol’s body. Chanyeol is vaguely grateful that they have the house to themselves because there’s no way he’d have been able to keep quiet, not when Baekhyun finds his rhythm and begins to press against that spot he’d found with his fingers.  
  
Chanyeol lifts his legs, pressing his clammy thighs tight against Baekhyun’s hips, and Baekhyun shudders, his whole body trembling.  
  
“I’m gonna-“ Baekhyun dips his head down to kiss Chanyeol and all Chanyeol can do in return is pant against his mouth because he’s close too, he’s so, so close.  
  
Every thrust inside him makes Chanyeol’s body tighten up, his toes curling into Baekhyun’s duvet, and he’s so lost in it, in the pleasure coursing through him, in the warmth of Baekhyun’s body pressed against his, that Chanyeol isn’t sure, when it happens, who comes first. All he knows is that Baekhyun’s body goes rigid against his and then Chanyeol is coming with a sharp cry, spilling all over his belly.  
  
It takes him a long moment to catch his breath and when he does Baekhyun is lying prone on top of him, their bodies stuck together with sweat. Chanyeol shifts uncomfortably and Baekhyun lifts his head.  
  
“That was-“  
  
“Phenomenal? Mind-blowing? The best experience of your life and you can’t wait to do it again?”  
  
Chanyeol snorts but he doesn’t disagree, instead lifting one shaking hand to brush Baekhyun’s hair out of his eyes.  
  
“All of the above.”  
  
Baekhyun grins.  
  
“See now, aren’t you glad that I went on the internet?” Chanyeol pulls on Baekhyun’s hair playfully and laughs when Baekhyun bares his teeth.  
  
“Very glad. Of all the Muggle inventions the internet is definitely my favourite.”  
  
Baekhyun nods in satisfaction and then carefully lifts himself away from Chanyeol. Chanyeol gasps when he pulls out and for all that it had hurt, at first, now he feels empty and strangely bereft without Baekhyun inside him. Baekhyun grabs some tissues from his desk for the two of them to tidy themselves up with and once they’re done he collapses down onto the bed beside Chanyeol.  
  
“Joking aside,” Baekhyun says seriously, gazing up at Chanyeol, “how was it?”  
  
Chanyeol rolls onto his side and the grin he directs at Baekhyun is blinding.  
  
“Amazing, Baekhyun. Honestly. You were so worth the wait.”  
  
Baekhyun laughs then, his shoulders shaking.  
  
“You were worth the wait too.”  
  
Chanyeol snuggles closer and the kiss he presses against Baekhyun’s mouth is messy and lazy but he can feel Baekhyun smile against his mouth all the same. Baekhyun opens his arms and Chanyeol snuggles into them, curling his larger body around Baekhyun’s and resting his head against Baekhyun’s chest. Baekhyun’s heart is hammering beneath his ear and the late evening sun streaming into Baekhyun’s bedroom is almost unbearable, but Chanyeol allows himself to drift off to sleep, more content and sated than he thought it was even possible to be.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
N.E.W.T.s are every bit as nastily exhausting as Chanyeol had ever expected them to be and then some. Within two weeks of getting back to school and starting their seventh year, Chanyeol is up to his eyeballs in homework and it all seems to snowball relentlessly the deeper into the year they get.  
  
They all make a valiant attempt to keep up while still maintaining something of a social life, but the trips to Hogsmeade are quickly sacrificed by the time Christmas rolls around. If it weren’t for the disgust and outrage Chanyeol knows he would be exposed to from all of his friends if he even suggested it, Chanyeol would have dropped going to watch Quidditch, too.  
  
Even with as few distractions as possible, it seems like all they ever do is homework and revision and spell practice and _more_ revision. The teachers constantly stress the importance of this year onto them, as if that isn’t something Chanyeol has been hearing at least monthly for the last six years.  
  
If he’d thought his parents were relentless in badgering him about his N.E.W.T.s before, the way they hound him now that he’s actually _doing_ them is borderline harassment. They write him so many letters that eventually Chanyeol stops sending Strix back with his replies, half terrified that the poor bird is going to pass out with exhaustion from the constant back and forth trips between Scotland and London. That doesn’t stop his parents, though. Instead they just send one of the family birds and Chanyeol dreads breakfast every morning, knows he’s going to see an enormous Eagle Owl soaring down to land in front of him bearing a letter laden with questions; How many hours a night are you revising? What marks do your Professors have you predicted at? Have you applied for any Ministry positions?  
  
It eventually gets to the point that Chanyeol can’t take it any more. His father’s owl lands beside Chanyeol’s toast just two days after Chanyeol had seen the bird last. Without even opening the letter Chanyeol pulls it from the bird’s leg and scribbles a hasty reply to stop writing to him, to please not contact him until after his exams are finished, and not to expect any replies if they choose to ignore his request.  
  
The look the owl gives him as Chanyeol sends it on it’s way is reproachful, but Chanyeol stubbornly refuses to feel bad. He understood that his parents wanted him to succeed, but wanting that at the expense of their only child’s happiness was something that Chanyeol refused to stand for any longer.  
  
The letters don’t stop, coincidentally, but Chanyeol keeps true to his word. He doesn’t reply to a single one, just sends each owl off with a treat and a shake of his head.  
  
“You’re doing the right thing, you know,” Baekhyun says softly. The two of them have taken to camping out in the library of late, books and quills and sheets of parchment spread out across the table. Sehun and Jongin join them more often than not, too, but they’d bailed an hour ago to go and get some fresh air before heading down to the Great Hall for tea.  
  
“I know,” Chanyeol replies, “but they still have a funny knack of making me feel really bloody guilty about it, even when they’re miles away.”  
  
“They’re your parents, making you feel guilty about everything is what they’re supposed to do.” Baekhyun smiles sagely at Chanyeol from across the table. Chanyeol puts down the quill that he was twirling idly between his fingers and reaches for Baekhyun’s hand. Baekhyun drops his wand immediately.  
  
“I just- I don’t understand why they can’t see that I’m stressed enough without having them on my case all the time, too.”  
  
Baekhyun squeezes Chanyeol’s hand firmly before linking their fingers together properly. For all that Chanyeol knows Baekhyun is stressed too, he’s a rock for Chanyeol, solid and dependable and always, always there to make Chanyeol smile and laugh when the pressure builds up on him too much. Chanyeol doesn’t know what he’d do without him.  
  
“You have to stop worrying about them, alright?” Chanyeol opens his mouth but Baekhyun continues on before he can speak. “I know it isn’t easy but it’s exactly like you said. Exams are only three months away, you have enough to think about. If they haven’t stopped badgering you about it by now, I don’t think they ever will, Chanyeol.”  
  
Chanyeol sighs and stares down at their joint hands, at Baekhyun’s pretty fingers laced through his.  
  
“You’re right. Of course you’re right. All I ever wanted when I was little was for my parents to be proud of me but the older I get the more I feel like they don’t really care about me, you know? They just care about the family image and the damage that I’m going to do to it if I don’t live my life the way that they want me to.”  
  
Chanyeol hates the way he always sounds like a lost little boy when he talks about his parents, the way he still struggles, after all these years, to wrestle himself fully away from the shackles they have always tried to place on him. He still hasn’t fully succeeded and it’s still there, that lingering desire for his parents to approve, to know that he’s enough, is doing enough. But it’s an old and eroded ache, now, one that Chanyeol has since cracked and pieced back together. There are things that he longs for more, like the warmth of Baekhyun’s smile and the touch of his lips, the goosebumps that spring up along his skin when Chanyeol strokes fingers over his belly, his thighs. His priorities, at least, have changed and Chanyeol finds himself all the richer for it.  
  
“Hey, for what it’s worth, I’m proud of you,” Baekhyun says. Chanyeol whips his head up so fast that his hair flies everywhere. Baekhyun laughs softly. “And I’ll be proud of you no matter what marks you get in your N.E.W.T.s, even if they’re all Ts.”  
  
“You-“ Chanyeol says, his voice choked. There’s a mischievous sparkle in Baekhyun’s eyes and it’s all Chanyeol can do to stop himself leaning over the table and pressing a kiss to Baekhyun’s mouth. How could he be so worried about his parents when the only person that really mattered was sat right in front of him?  
  
“It’s worth more than you even know, Baekhyun.”  
  
Baekhyun’s smile broadens. He squeezes Chanyeol’s hand one last time before pulling away and picking his wand back up.  
  
“Good. Now that that’s sorted, I’m gonna give the Protean Charm another half an hour and then we’ll head down to the Great Hall, alright? I’m starving.”  
  
Chanyeol nods. “Yeah, alright.” He picks up his quill but Chanyeol doesn’t go back to his revision notes right away. “Thank you, Baekhyun.”  
  
Baekhyun rolls his eyes but his entire facial expression is soft and tender as he looks over at Chanyeol. “Anything for you.”  
  
Chanyeol’s face flushes with pleasure and he finally breaks eye contact, staring down at his notes on legislation relating to Werewolf rights and forcing himself to concentrate. He believed every word that Baekhyun said, but there was no way he was going to subject Baekhyun to the indignity of having to be proud of him for getting Troll in all of his N.E.W.T.s.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
For all that Chanyeol thought he was prepared for his N.E.W.T.s, the panic still threatens to overwhelm him by the time they finally roll around. Months and months of extra revision and hours of homework, late nights in the library and falling asleep propped up in bed surrounded by text books have all come down to these next two weeks. No matter what Chanyeol tells his parents, he knows how important these exams are and he knows that the marks he gets will determine the rest of his life.  
  
“Are you alright?” Baekhyun asks, his voice cutting through the haze of fear attempting to cloud Chanyeol’s mind.  
  
“What? Yeah, yeah I’m fine, I’m great- really.” Chanyeol stutters. The theory paper for Transfiguration is their first exam and all of the seventh years are stood in a crowd outside the Great Hall, waiting to be let in. The noise of people testing each other at the last minute is overwhelming. Sehun’s arm brushes against his on one side as he shifts where he’s leaning against the wall and Chanyeol spares him a momentary glance before turning back to Baekhyun.  
  
“Relax, we’re going to be fine. You know this stuff.” Baekhyun sounds so calm, so collected. Chanyeol laughs a little hysterically.  
  
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. But what if-“  
  
“No buts. We’re ready for this, Chanyeol. There won’t be a single question on this test or any of the others that we won’t know how to answer. Not if you just calm down.”  
  
He’s right, Chanyeol knows he’s right, but it’s still an effort to stop himself from hyperventilating.  
  
“You’re right.” Chanyeol says.  
  
“I’m always right, how many times do I have to tell you that?” Chanyeol laughs and reaches down to squeeze Baekhyun’s hand. He might sound calm, but Baekhyun’s palms are cold and clammy.  
  
He pulls away when the call comes for them all to enter the Great Hall and take their seats. Sehun squeezes his shoulder and Jongin flashes them all a shaky smile from where he’s huddled with a group of Hufflepuffs. Chanyeol takes a seat at his desk and heaves in a huge deep breath, carefully laying out his wand and quill and ink in front of him. Baekhyun flashes him one last thumbs up from the table next to him and Chanyeol nods his head.  
  
He could do this.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The two week exam period passes by in something of a haze. Chanyeol wanders from test to test, furiously scribbling away in his theory and casting his way through the practicals. He barely even remembers to eat in between, quickly discarding one pile of notes once a particular subject is over and diving for another. It’s frantic and harried in a way that nothing in Chanyeol’s life up to this point could ever compare, but the relief that washes over him when he walks out of his last exam and knows that the results are now out of his hands is so sweet it’s almost tangible.  
  
There are still a couple of weeks left before the official end of term and the seventh years take it upon themselves to make the most of the time they have left at Hogwarts. Most of them choose to spend it outside in the grounds in the sunshine and Chanyeol and his friends are quick to join them, lazing around on the lawn for days on end. It’s almost criminal how easy it is to relax with nothing more pressing to worry about than making sure they don’t get sunburnt and reminding themselves that they do need to start packing to head home sooner or later.  
  
It’s on one such day that their foursome find themselves on a patch of grass down by the lake. The sun is glittering off the surface of the water and Baekhyun had immediately pulled his shoes off and dipped his feet in. He’d screamed when the Giant Squid tickled his toes, falling flat on his back in his haste to get away. Now he’s lying with his head in Chanyeol’s lap, his still bare feet curled into the grass. Sehun and Jongin are throwing a Quaffle to each other a little way away and Chanyeol watches them absently as he strokes his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair.  
  
“I can’t believe this is nearly over,” Baekhyun says suddenly. Chanyeol drags his eyes away from the complicated manoeuvre Jongin is attempting to teach to Sehun. Baekhyun is smiling up at him, one hand over his eyes to shield his face from the sun. There are two pale freckles on the bridge of his nose and Chanyeol is reminded suddenly, sharply, of summers spent with Baekhyun, climbing the fells and eating ice cream and making love.  
  
“I know.” Chanyeol scratches his blunt nails against Baekhyun’s scalp and he laughs when Baekhyun croons in delight. “Seven years have gone by quickly, haven’t they?”  
  
Baekhyun nods and turns his face into Chanyeol’s leg, rubbing his cheek against his thigh. He doesn’t speak again for a while and it’s unlike him but Chanyeol doesn’t press it, just keeps on stroking Baekhyun’s hair.  
  
“What are you going to do when you get your results?” Baekhyun finally asks. He moves to sit up and Chanyeol lets his hand fall away. “Your parents are still on about you working at the Ministry, aren’t they? They’re going to want you to apply right away.”  
  
Chanyeol purses his lips. He’s been so adamant for so long about what he doesn’t want to do, that now that he’s faced with the option of what he _does_ want, Chanyeol isn’t sure. He curls closer to Baekhyun and throws an arm around his shoulders. Baekhyun is warm and soft, his hair tickling Chanyeol’s nose when he leans down to press a kiss to the crown of his head. This, though, this Chanyeol was sure about.  
  
“I’m not applying to the Ministry. Not now and maybe not ever.”  
  
Baekhyun hums next to him and Chanyeol watches as he turns his head towards Sehun and Jongin. Jongin has Sehun pinned to the ground and he’s dumping handfuls of grass into Sehun’s blond hair. They’re both screeching with laughter, the Quaffle forgotten by their sides. Chanyeol smiles fondly. He was going to miss this.  
  
“I’ve got no plans either,” Baekhyun says. He sounds completely at peace with the idea, relaxed.  
  
“No? You don’t fancy being a quill pusher in my place? I’m sure I could convince my mother to take you on, there’s going to be a vacancy in her department after all.”  
  
Baekhyun snorts. “Thanks, but the idea of being cooped up in an office with your mother tutting at me disapprovingly is no more attractive to me than it is to you. I’ll pass.”  
  
They lapse into a comfortable silence again. Chanyeol allows his gaze to drift up to the school, to the castle that has been his home for the last seven years. He isn’t ready to leave this all behind, not yet, but he doesn’t have a choice. None of them do. The world was out there, waiting for them, and they would have to meet it whether they were ready or not.  
  
“What’s that thing that Muggles do before they go to University?” Chanyeol asks. “A gap year?”  
  
Baekhyun turns to look at him and there’s a playful glint in those dark eyes.  
  
“Yeah, a gap year,” Baekhyun laughs, nodding. “Why? Do you fancy taking one?”  
  
“Actually,” Chanyeol starts, his fingers dancing over Baekhyun’s shoulder. “I was thinking maybe we could both take one. Together.”  
  
Baekhyun stares up at Chanyeol for a long moment and then leans up to kiss him fiercely on the mouth. He tastes like summer and warmth and promise. He licks his lips when he pulls away and Chanyeol swears he feels his heart shudder.  
  
This might not be the life that his parents had planned for him, but Chanyeol can’t think of anything that would make him happier. Baekhyun smiles up at him and Chanyeol links their fingers together, squeezes Baekhyun’s hand tightly.  
  
“Yeah, maybe we could.”


End file.
